Dubai · Free zone
DAFZA
Dubai Airport Free Zone
The honest read
What it is actually good at.
Cargo clears into the free zone in hours rather than days, which is worth real money if your stock is expensive per kilogram — electronics, pharmaceuticals, aviation parts, jewellery.
Who is actually based here
Electronics and pharmaceutical distributors, aviation parts traders, jewellery and high-value goods handlers, and time-critical logistics operations.
What it costs
The highest per square foot in Dubai. Justified where stock is expensive per kilogram or time-critical; not otherwise.
How banks receive it
Straightforward. The tenant profile is high-value trade and banks are comfortable with it.
Commonly licensed here
- Emirate
- Dubai
- Type
- Free zone
- Location
- Dubai International Airport
- Established
- 1996
- Licence issuance
- 2–4 weeks
- Residence visas
- By leased area
- Ownership
- 100% foreign
- Premises
- Offices and light-industrial units inside the airport perimeter
Timelines, quotas and package contents are indicative and change without notice. We confirm every one against the current schedule before you commit to anything.
Premises
Where the office actually goes.
DAFZA is industrial estate rather than office district. What decides the site is throughput: distance to the port or the airport, the load the floor takes, power to the plot, and where the workforce sleeps. Dubai Airport Free Zone is where those questions get answered.
Inside the perimeter of Dubai International, with cargo clearing into the zone in hours rather than days. What DAFZA itself offers by way of premises: Offices and light-industrial units inside the airport perimeter.
- District
- Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai
- Typical rent
- The highest per square foot in Dubai for light-industrial and office space
- Licence type there
- Free zone
Questions
You are inside the Dubai International perimeter with cargo clearing in hours rather than days. For high-value or time-sensitive stock that is worth real money.
Trading, logistics, aviation services and light assembly, with a bias toward high-value goods. General services businesses are a poor fit for the price.
For high-value products with fast turns, yes. For general e-commerce, Dubai South or a cheaper zone with third-party fulfilment usually makes more sense.