Padel arrived in Dubai fast, and a lot of clubs were built by people who loved the sport rather than people planning an exit. Now the first wave of owners is starting to think about selling, and most are surprised by what a buyer asks for.
A buyer is not buying courts. Courts can be built. What they are buying is bookings, a lease, and a business that keeps running after you leave. Here is what gets checked, in the order it usually comes up.
1. Utilisation, hour by hour
The first request is almost always the booking data — not annual revenue, the actual utilisation rate broken down by hour and by day.
Nearly every club in Dubai is full between 7pm and 10pm on weekdays. That tells a buyer nothing, because every competitor is full then too. What they want to know is what happens between 10am and 4pm on a Tuesday.
A club running at 80% in peak hours and 20% off-peak is a very different asset to one running at 80% and 50%, even if the annual revenue is similar. The second one has a business underneath it. The first one has three good hours a day and a lot of empty court time it is paying rent on.
Export the booking data before you go to market. If your system can't produce it, that is the first thing to fix.
2. The lease, and how much of it is left
This is the single biggest factor in what your club is worth, and it is the one owners underestimate most.
Padel clubs sit in warehouses and industrial units, often on leases signed when that space was cheap. A buyer is pricing the remaining term. Five years left at a rent signed three years ago is a genuine asset and can be worth more than the courts. Eighteen months left with a renewal at the landlord's discretion is a serious discount, because the buyer has to assume they are either paying market rent soon or losing the site.
They will also check whether the lease can be assigned at all, whether the landlord approves a change of ownership, and whether the permitted use actually covers a sports facility. Some industrial leases don't, and the club has been operating on an understanding rather than a document.
Know your renewal date and your landlord's position before a buyer asks. "I'll have to check" is an expensive answer.
3. Where the revenue actually comes from
Court bookings, memberships, coaching, corporate events, café, pro shop. A buyer will want each line separately, because they carry very different value.
Memberships and corporate contracts are the valuable part — recurring, predictable, and they survive an ownership change. Walk-in bookings are fine but they follow price and convenience. Coaching income often follows the coach rather than the club, which brings up the next point.
Café revenue gets looked at hard. Plenty of clubs run a café that loses money while the owner counts its sales in the top line. Buyers separate it out.
4. Whether the coaches are staying
In a lot of Dubai clubs, a meaningful share of the bookings exist because of one or two coaches with a personal following. Members book to train with a person, not a venue.
A buyer will ask directly: are the coaches employed by the company or working freelance, do they have contracts, do those contracts include non-compete terms, and are they staying after the sale. If your best coach leaves and opens up two streets away with your members' phone numbers, the buyer has bought courts and a lease.
Get contracts in place before you sell. It changes the valuation.
5. The physical condition of the courts
Buyers walk the courts and they check specifics: the state of the artificial turf and when it was last replaced, the glass panels, the lighting, and the floor underneath.
Turf has a working life measured in years, not decades, and replacement is a real cost that a buyer will subtract from your asking price. Same with lighting and any glass that needs replacing. If you have kept a maintenance record, produce it — it turns an argument into a fact.
Air conditioning matters more than anything else on an indoor court in Dubai. A buyer will ask what the DEWA bill looks like in July and August, and if the cooling struggles in summer, they will find out from a member.
6. The numbers matching the bank
Same as any business sale: revenue declared, revenue banked and revenue on the VAT return need to agree.
Padel has a specific version of this problem. Cash court bookings, coaching paid direct to the coach, and informal tournament income often sit outside the accounts. Owners include them in what they tell buyers and can't evidence them in due diligence. That doesn't just cost you the difference — it makes a buyer question every other number you have given them.
Present what you can prove. Mention the rest as upside, not as revenue.
7. Members, and whether they transfer
How many active members, on what terms, paid how far in advance, and what happens to that money at handover.
Prepaid memberships are a liability, not an asset. If members have paid for a year and the sale completes in month three, the buyer inherits nine months of obligation with no income. That gets adjusted in the price, and it is better to raise it yourself than have it found.
Buyers also want the churn figure. In a market where new clubs keep opening, membership retention says more about your club than any growth story.
8. What competition arrived since you opened
You will be asked what has opened within a fifteen-minute drive in the last two years, and whether your bookings held.
Al Quoz alone now has a substantial cluster of clubs. That is not a reason not to sell — it just means the buyer will pressure-test whether your numbers reflect the market as it is now, not as it was in 2023. Recent monthly figures matter more than a strong full-year average.
What a padel club sells for
Price follows verifiable net profit, adjusted for the lease term and how much of the operation depends on you personally. A club where the owner is at reception every evening, holds the coach relationships and does the marketing is worth less than one with a manager running it, even on identical numbers.
Be careful with figures quoted around the market. Multiples that circulate in conversation are usually based on the asking price of clubs that haven't sold, not on completed transactions.
Preparing to sell: the short version
- Export twelve months of booking data by hour, day and court
- Get your lease, renewal terms and landlord's position on assignment confirmed in writing
- Split your P&L by revenue line and pull the café out separately
- Put coach contracts in place with sensible notice and non-compete terms
- Compile maintenance records and know when the turf is next due
- Reconcile declared revenue against bank statements and VAT returns
- Document your membership base, renewal dates and prepaid balances
- Write down how the club runs, so it isn't only in your head
Do that and you are selling a business. Skip it and you are selling courts and a lease, at a price that reflects it.
A note on confidentiality
Padel in Dubai is a small world. Your coaches, your members and your competitors will hear about a sale faster than in almost any other sector, and a rumour can cost you staff and bookings while you are still negotiating.
Any sale should run confidentially: buyers approached directly, NDA signed before the club is named, and staff told when terms are agreed rather than when the process starts.
BFS Commercial Brokers handles confidential sales of sports and leisure businesses across Dubai and the UAE. If you are considering an exit, or just want to know where your club would price, get in touch for a confidential conversation.
FAQ section
How much is my padel club worth in Dubai?
Value follows verifiable net profit, adjusted for remaining lease term, off-peak utilisation and how much of the business depends on the owner. Clubs with strong recurring memberships and a long lease price higher than those relying on peak-hour walk-ins.
Does the lease transfer to a buyer?
Usually only with landlord approval. Most industrial and warehouse leases require consent for assignment or change of control, so the landlord's position should be confirmed before marketing begins.
What do buyers ask for first?
Booking and utilisation data, broken down by hour and day. It shows whether the club earns outside peak evening hours.
Do my coaches have to stay after the sale?
Not necessarily, but buyers will ask. Where bookings depend on specific coaches, contracts and notice terms materially affect the price.
What happens to prepaid memberships when I sell?
They are a liability the buyer inherits, so they are normally adjusted for in the price or settled at completion.
How long does it take to sell a padel club in Dubai?
Typically three to six months, longer if accounts, lease documents or booking data aren't ready at the start.
Can I sell my padel club without my staff and members knowing?
Yes. Buyers are approached directly and sign an NDA before the club is identified.
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