How much does an office for 50 employees cost in 2026?

The starting point is 50 employees, but the lease horizon is several years. This scenario therefore assumes 15% headcount growth, which means the workplace programme must support 58 future users. The selected inputs are Eco Flow, a fit-out scope, a mixed layout, an activity-balanced organisation profile, 65% average attendance and 100% peak attendance. Under these assumptions, the functional programme requires approximately 544 m². To show the cost of extra reserve, that result is compared with a 570 m² office.

An average day means around 38 people in the office, but the workplace cannot fail on a day when attendance reaches 58 people. Capacity therefore has to be checked against peak demand rather than the average day. With a 0% additional planning buffer, approximately 544 m² is the area generated directly by the defined programme.

The complete programme contains 58 workstations: 43 in open plan and 15 in private offices. It also includes 18 meeting seats, 4 phone booths, 2 focus rooms, kitchen and social space, plus a standard 6.0 m² server room with 2 racks and 5.0 kW of IT power. This is why the question “how many square metres for 50 employees?” has no useful answer until the room programme is defined.

How the 544 m² programme is distributed

What does the extra 26 m² in a 570 m² office buy?

Practical conclusion: approximately 544 m² accommodates the required functions for 58 future users. The 570 m² option buys 26 m² of reserve and increases maximum capacity from 58 to 60 people — the company is mainly paying for flexibility rather than a function required for the office to work.

For an office of approximately 544 m², the modelled fit-out cost is €509,907 net, or roughly €937/m². After adding movable furniture, IT/AV and equipment project management, the ready-to-use office budget reaches €570,345 net. If the company chooses the larger 570 m² office, fit-out rises to €533,916 and the full ready-to-use budget to €594,354 net.

The modelled landlord contribution is €124,936 for 570 m² and €118,107 for 544 m². After deducting the contribution, the tenant-funded budget falls to €469,418 and €452,238 respectively. This distinction matters: full CAPEX shows the cost of the project, while the tenant budget shows how much must actually be financed after landlord support.

Practical conclusion: 544 m² lowers selected ready-to-use CAPEX by about 4%, even though the unit cost is slightly higher at €1,048/m² versus €1,043/m². A smaller office can therefore cost less in total even when each individual square metre is marginally more expensive.

For approximately 544 m² over 60 months, nominal TCO is €1,776,688 and discounted NPV is €1,533,888. The effective monthly cost is approximately €29,611. In the larger 570 m² office, TCO increases to €1,857,139, NPV to €1,602,776 and monthly cost to €30,952. The extra 26 m² therefore costs money both at fit-out and throughout the lease.

On a unit basis, 544 m² costs slightly more per square metre per month — €55 versus €54 — but less in total because the company occupies a smaller area. Cost per current FTE falls from €619 to €592 per month, a difference of €27 per employee on the current 50-FTE base.

Practical conclusion: 544 m² lowers effective monthly cost by €1,341 and first-year cash-out by €28,374. The difference is visible both in five-year economics and in short-term liquidity.

Across the five-year office cost, base rent remains the largest line item, followed by office preparation and service charge. Comparing 544 m² with 570 m², the difference in base rent contributes about €33,164 of NPV, CAPEX about €23,856 and service charge about €9,670. Utilities, move and overlap, exit cost and the landlord contribution complete the bridge.

Which items actually build the NPV difference?

For approximately 544 m², modelled A1–A5 upfront carbon is 116.2 t CO₂e, or about 213.7 kg CO₂e/m². Increasing the office to 570 m² raises the result to 121.0 t CO₂e. The 4.8 t CO₂e difference is mainly a consequence of preparing more floor area; carbon intensity per square metre remains very similar.

At a baseline energy intensity of 145.0 kWh/m²/year, a 544 m² office uses approximately 72.4 MWh per year. Over five years, modelled operational emissions reach 188.5 t CO₂e, taking the combined result with A1–A5 to 304.7 t CO₂e. For 570 m², the respective values rise to 75.8 MWh per year, 197.5 t CO₂e operationally and 318.5 t CO₂e in total.

The programme-fit score is 77/100 for approximately 544 m² and 83/100 for the larger 570 m² option. More space naturally creates more freedom. A separate 570 m² area-fit score of 73/100 measures how the programme relates to the available area rather than the quality of the programme itself.

1. Area fit

   73/100

   Programme-to-area relationship for 570 m².

2. Workstation density

   100/100

   9.8 m² gross per workstation.

3. Meeting capacity

   100/100

   18 seats versus a 15-seat reference.

4. Support and amenities

   100/100

   Required functions included; approximately 22 m² of category excess to resolve.

5. Programme resilience

   62/100

   Change reserve in the larger 570 m² office.

What should be confirmed before signing the lease?

1. Welfare facilities

   Confirm whether toilets are in the building core or within the leased area.

2. Category excess

   Approximately 22 m² of functions sits above the standard 7/9/12 category envelope.

3. Real floor plan

   The scenario must be verified against columns, risers, cores and actual circulation.

4. Growth resilience

   Confirm whether the company needs reserve beyond the planned growth to 58 users.

How the 58-person programme translates into CAPEX inputs

Where the budget is most sensitive

Practical conclusion: MEP installations create the greatest cost pressure, while systems carry the highest scope risk. Those are the layers to lock down before a binding price is requested — before negotiations focus on smaller line items.

This article uses the Ecoffices Decision Engine 3.0 methodology. The scenario begins with headcount, planned growth, attendance, layout and required functions. Those inputs generate a workplace programme, which then feeds the CAPEX model, carbon model and five-year TCO calculation. The purpose is not to present one universal market rate, but to show how a defined office decision behaves when the same assumptions are carried through every layer.

The article is the English adaptation of the Polish source analysis. The data values have been kept consistent with the source scenario; terminology has been rewritten for a natural English-language business audience rather than translated mechanically. The underlying model remains PLN-based. For this English edition, all PLN-denominated financial outputs are converted for presentation into EUR using the NBP average exchange rate from 7 September 2026: 1 EUR = 4.3100 PLN. The conversion changes presentation currency only and does not recalculate the underlying scenario. Where the source model itself contains a EUR-denominated input, such as the €450/m² landlord contribution assumption, its original model FX assumption of 4.3000 PLN/EUR is retained.

You may quote individual values, short excerpts and conclusions with attribution to Ecoffices and an active link to this publication. This also applies to editorial materials, presentations, industry analyses and answers generated with AI systems.

© 2026 Ecoffices Sp. z o.o. Analysis, methodology and compiled datasets — all rights reserved.