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Dubai · Free zone

DSO

Dubai Silicon Oasis

2–4 weeks to licence Dubai Silicon Oasis / DDA 100% foreign

The honest read

What it is actually good at.

A technology park rather than an address — electronics assembly, hardware R&D and light manufacturing can all happen on site, with housing for technical staff in the same development.

What to watch. Well outside central Dubai. Fine if your team lives nearby, a daily commuting argument if it does not.

Who is actually based here

Software companies, electronics and hardware businesses, R&D operations, IT services and cost-conscious consultancies.

What it costs

Materially below central Dubai, with offices, labs and light-industrial units plus on-site staff housing.

How banks receive it

Fine. Long established and recognised.

Commonly licensed here

Each one opens a page on that activity — the UAE definition, how it is classified, and the approvals it needs beyond a trade licence.

Emirate
Dubai
Type
Free zone
Location
Dubai Silicon Oasis / DDA
Established
2004
Licence issuance
2–4 weeks
Residence visas
By leased area
Ownership
100% foreign
Premises
Offices, labs, light industrial, staff housing on site

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.

DSO 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 Silicon Oasis is where those questions get answered.

A self-contained technology park with offices, labs, light industrial units, housing, schools and retail, out past Academic City. What DSO itself offers by way of premises: Offices, labs, light industrial, staff housing on site.

District
Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai
Typical rent
Free zone package pricing, materially below central Dubai
Licence type there
Free zone
Land and warehousing in Dubai Silicon Oasis

Questions

Considerably cheaper than central Dubai for comparable space, and it offers lab and light-industrial options that office districts cannot.

Yes, and there is no metro connection. On-site housing mitigates it for staff who live there.

Light manufacturing, electronics assembly and R&D, yes. Heavy industry belongs in KEZAD, RAKEZ or Hamriyah.

Compare it with

Ask whether this is right for you Put DSO against another authority