Dubai is set to renew the street furniture of hundreds of parks and thousands of kilometres of promenades, with benches, shade and bus shelters. Spanish manufacturers have the products to compete, but their margin will depend on how they structure their entry.
For two decades, the image the Emirates projected abroad was vertical: towers, airports, artificial islands. Dubai’s urban agenda to 2040 is horizontal. It is about parks, bus stops, promenades and shade..
Dubai redesigns its street furniture
The Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan aims to double the area of green spaces and public parks, and it already has a timetable. In April 2026, Dubai Municipality announced 35 new parks for that same year, with an investment of AED 348 million, and set a target of building a further 310 and renovating more than 220 by 2040. Each one will need benches, bins, pergolas, play areas, lighting and sports equipment.
Mobility follows the same logic. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) already operates 895 air-conditioned bus shelters at 621 locations, with different models depending on how each stop is used, information screens and advertising space, all of them compliant with the emirate’s Universal Design Code.
What matters to manufacturers lies in the small print of those tenders: extreme heat, local accessibility standards and a public buyer that pays for durability. The Spanish street furniture industry knows what Dubai is asking for, having worked for years with demanding municipal tenders and increasingly harsh summers.
What changed in 2026
Any analysis of this opportunity that ignored the Gulf crisis of early 2026, which hit the Emirates head-on, would be flawed. After its July visit, the International Monetary Fund highlighted the resilience of the UAE economy, while warning that uncertainty remains high.
For business owners, there are two ways to read this. Geopolitical risk is no longer theoretical, and contracts have to address it. But public space is precisely the kind of spending a government maintains to sustain confidence in times of tension. Dubai announced the parks programme in April, while the crisis was still unfolding, and that says more about the emirate’s commitment than any press release.
Selling street furniture to Dubai from Spain is no longer enough
The usual temptation for manufacturers is to sell from Spain through a local distributor. It works for one-off sales. It rarely works for public contracts or for a developer’s large-scale project.
The reason is that the Emirates have built a public procurement policy that rewards real presence in the country. The National In-Country Value (ICV) Programme channels public spending towards the UAE economy and, although certification is formally optional, participating entities can take it into account when evaluating bids. A company with no spending, employees or suppliers in the country competes at a disadvantage, even if its product is better.
The underlying decision is which part of the value chain to take to the Emirates. It could be final assembly, finishing, warehousing, maintenance or the technical office that adapts the product to each tender, and each of these adds local value without having to relocate the factory.
The decisions made before selling the first bench
In transactions between Spain and the Gulf, problems rarely stem from the product. They stem from the structure, and almost always from decisions taken in a hurry at the outset.
The vehicle. The federal Commercial Companies Law now allows a foreign investor to own 100% of a mainland company for most activities. This is a real alternative to the free zones, whose companies, as a general rule, cannot sell directly into the local market without an additional presence. For those aiming at municipal or RTA tenders, the choice between the two determines who they can sell to.
The local partner. Many Spanish companies enter alongside an Emirati group that brings relationships, knowledge of how the authorities buy and, sometimes, industrial capacity. It is a legitimate and often effective route. But the shareholders’ agreement has to settle from day one what in Spain we would leave for later: who manages the relationship with the public client, who owns the designs, how board deadlock is broken and on what terms each party can exit. A poorly drafted agreement ends up turning the partner into the real owner of the business.
The commercial agent. The Commercial Agencies Law, in force since June 2023, has made it easier to terminate registered agencies, which previously all but required mutual agreement or a court ruling. Even so, unless the contract provides otherwise, the agent may claim compensation for what it invested in promoting the product. And only UAE nationals or wholly Emirati-owned companies can act as registered agents. The exit clause should be negotiated with the day the company wants to sell directly already in mind.
The concession.Advertising funds part of the street furniture, and the RTA itself has developed air-conditioned bus shelters through public-private partnerships. Those who join these schemes take on operation and maintenance for years, with performance guarantees in extreme heat. There, the allocation of risk, now including geopolitical risk, is what determines profitability.
Investment protection. Spain and the UAE have concluded negotiations on a modernised reciprocal investment protection agreement, and the Spanish Council of Ministers has already authorised its signature. It is worth following its entry into force and structuring the investment so that it can benefit from it.
When the company is family-owned
Much of the Spanish street furniture sector consists of mid-sized family businesses, for whom entering Dubai commits resources, management attention and, often, a member of the next generation who relocates there.
That calls for corporate governance before logistics. Who approves the investment and within what limits. How the subsidiary fits into the family protocol. What happens if the family member posted to Dubai wants to keep it, or to come back.
There is also a capital dimension that is rarely considered. The Emirates are the largest Arab investor in Spain, with more than USD 8 billion invested according to their own diplomatic sources. An Emirati subsidiary with contracts and a real presence is a commercial platform, and it can also be the door through which a Gulf financial partner enters the parent company’s capital, with all that this implies for its valuation and for a future corporate transaction.
An entry that can be unwound
If the region stabilises, the likely outcome is a long cycle of investment in public space linked to the 2040 plans, with an increasingly demanding buyer in terms of sustainability, accessibility and climate control. Negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union and the Emirates, which include public procurement, could improve conditions, although they are moving slowly and should not be counted on. If the conflict flares up again, authorities will freeze budgets and delay contract awards. That is why the entry has to be phased and reversible.
After more than a decade working with Spanish companies in the Emirates, I see the same pattern repeat itself. The market entries that work are designed with the rigour of a corporate transaction.
Dubai is deciding how its streets will be lived in over the next fifteen years. Those streets will be furnished with the products of whoever managed to be there in time and with the right structure. Spanish manufacturers have the product, the experience in harsh climates and the culture of public tendering. What will make the difference is not the design of the bench but the design of the contract.
Rafael López-Diéguez Piñar
Managing Director, RLD
