Just How Much Office Space Do you Need?

Posted by Tim Green Commercial on 15/07/2011

Looking for your first business premises can be particularly challenging as most office space is set up as a single bare room without the partitioning and walls in place. And unlike residential inspections, it'll be hard to envision just how you'll be marking off different fits outs and blocking off important areas, such as deciding on where the kitchen will be? If this is your first Sydney office space or if you're looking to relocate, the question that's hardest to answer is just how much commercial property space do you need?

Some Quick Office Space Calculations

How much space you'll need will obviously depend on the size of your team. Here are some quick figures for you to consider:

• The ballpark average is recommended to be 16-25 sqm per employee. (Although the world's largest single office, the Pentagon Building in the US has over 23,000 employees sharing in 344,100 sqm - at just 15 sqm per employee.)
• The average size for a standard "presidential office" can be anywhere from 14-37 sqm while most standard cubicle sizes are about 5 sqm.
• A large reception area (for about 6-9 people) can be around 28 sqm while a smaller reception area for just 3-5 guests can be just 18 sqm.
• In conference rooms, allow for 2-3 sqm per attendee.
• In a break room, plan for about 2-3 sqm for each person occupying the space at any one time and make sure there's enough room to access the cupboards, sink, utensils etc.
• For storage, estimate a filing cabinet at 0.5 sqm.
• Keep about 25 percent of your total area for aisles and foot traffic.
• You'll also need to consider areas for servers and IT equipment, mail room, stationary areas etc.

Once you determine how much space you'll need, it's time to start looking for your next commercial property for lease or sale. Visit a number of locations that are close to your space requirements. It might be worthwhile to check out some premises that are larger or smaller than your calculations to get an idea of what's out there in the market. Remember you can always sub lease and share premises with another business or you can have some members of your staff telecommute to adjust your available space.

Use our handy office space calculator to help you determine the amount of office space you'll need. It also has helpful floor plans so you can plan the layout for your workplace.