How much office space per person? Allow 50 to 75 sq ft each in a serviced office and 100 sq ft each in a conventional one. The legal minimum is lower, at roughly 50 sq ft per person before furniture, but nobody wants to work at the legal minimum.
We let rooms from 140 to 622 sq ft at Index House in Ascot, so we have watched a lot of teams guess their size wrong in both directions. This guide gives you the numbers, the reasons behind them and a table that matches team sizes to real rooms.
How much office space per person do you need?
Plan on 100 sq ft per person for a conventional office you fit out yourself, and 50 to 75 sq ft per person in a serviced office where the kitchen, meeting rooms and reception are shared. The UK legal minimum, set by the Health and Safety Executive, is 11 cubic metres per person, about 50 sq ft of floor with a standard 2.4 metre ceiling.
The 100 sq ft figure is the one most commercial agents use, and it assumes your floor area has to hold everything: desks, a meeting table, a kitchenette, filing, a reception area and the corridors between them.
In a serviced building most of that lives outside your door, which is why the per-person figure drops.
How many square metres per person in an office?
In metric, allow 5 to 7 square metres per person in a serviced office and 9 to 10 square metres per person in a conventional one. The HSE’s minimum of 11 cubic metres per person equals 4.6 square metres of floor at a 2.4 metre ceiling height, and the HSE notes that may be insufficient where much of the room is taken up by furniture.
The HSE’s guidance on room space is the only hard rule in UK law on this. Everything above it is judgement.
For reference, 1 square metre is 10.76 sq ft, so a 140 sq ft room is 13 square metres and a 622 sq ft room is 58.
Why a serviced office needs less space per person
A serviced office needs less floor per person because the building provides the rooms a team only uses occasionally. At Index House the meeting rooms, reception, kitchen, breakout areas and storage are shared, so your own room only has to hold desks, chairs, your files and enough space to move.
Think about what a conventional 1,000 sq ft office for ten people actually contains. A meeting room used three hours a week. A kitchen used twenty minutes a day. A reception desk used whenever the door goes. Corridors.
Strip those out and the same ten people need 600 to 700 sq ft of their own, with the rest available on demand down the hall.
That is the whole economic case for a serviced room, and our guide to serviced office costs in Berkshire shows what it does to the monthly figure.
What size office for 1 to 8 people?
Here is how team size maps to floor area, with the room at Index House that suits each one and what it costs. The serviced column assumes 50 to 75 sq ft per person plus a little circulation.
| People | Conventional office | Serviced office | Index House room | Monthly cost (+ VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 to 150 sq ft | 100 to 140 sq ft | 140 sq ft | £795 |
| 2 | 200 sq ft | 120 to 150 sq ft | 140 sq ft | £795 |
| 3 | 300 sq ft | 180 to 225 sq ft | 219 sq ft (from January 2027) | £1,275 |
| 4 | 400 sq ft | 240 to 350 sq ft | 348 sq ft | £1,995 |
| 5 | 500 sq ft | 300 to 375 sq ft | 348 or 415 sq ft | £1,995 or £2,395 |
| 6 | 600 sq ft | 350 to 450 sq ft | 415 or 453 sq ft | £2,395 or £2,595 |
| 7 | 700 sq ft | 420 to 525 sq ft | 453 sq ft (from January 2027) | £2,595 |
| 8 | 800 sq ft | 480 to 622 sq ft | 622 sq ft | £3,350 |
Two patterns in that table are worth noticing. The conventional figure is almost double the serviced one for every team size, and the Index House rooms sit at the generous end of the serviced range because each is a proper room with a window, not a glass pod.
Current availability is on our serviced offices page; three of those rooms are free now and three come up in January.
What is the typical size of a small office?
A small office in the UK is anywhere from 100 to 600 sq ft, with 150 to 300 sq ft the most common size for a business of two to four people. In a serviced building the smallest private rooms are usually 100 to 150 sq ft; ours starts at 140.
Below 100 sq ft you are looking at a single desk in a shared floor rather than a room, which is what coworking memberships and hot desks sell.
Things that change the number
Five things push a team above or below the rule of thumb. Run through them before you book a viewing.
- Screens and kit. Two monitors per desk and a printer add about 10 sq ft per person. Architects, designers and traders need more.
- Client meetings in your room. If you prefer to meet in your own space rather than a bookable meeting room, add a four-seat table and 60 sq ft.
- Storage. A conveyancing firm with physical files needs cabinets that a software team does not. Secure storage elsewhere in the building, which we include, takes the pressure off.
- Hybrid working. A team of six that is never all in on the same day can run on four desks. Decide your ratio honestly, then size for the busiest regular day.
- Growth. Hiring two people in the next year? Take the room that fits the team you will have in twelve months, or choose a building where moving to the next room up is easy. Several of our clients have done exactly that.
How much office space do you need for 20 people?
A team of 20 needs about 1,200 to 1,500 sq ft in a serviced building and 2,000 sq ft or more in a conventional office with its own meeting rooms and kitchen. At that size a managed office or a short lease often beats serviced per-desk pricing, because you are paying for shared facilities you could run yourself.
That is larger than anything at Index House, where rooms top out at 622 sq ft. We say so because sending a 20-person team to view a room for eight wastes everyone’s morning.
Can you rent a personal office for one?
Yes. A one-person office is the most common size we let: the 140 sq ft room at £795 a month plus VAT, with a desk, chair, storage and the run of the building’s meeting rooms, kitchen and car park. Solo consultants, advisers and founders take them to get a door between work and home.
If you are not ready for a monthly room, our hot desks are the same private offices booked by the day, which is a cheap way to find out how much space you actually use.
Measure twice
Count the people you will have in a year, allow 50 to 75 sq ft each in a serviced building or 100 in a conventional one, then add for screens, files and in-room meetings. Then go and stand in the room, because 348 sq ft on paper and 348 sq ft with daylight and your own door feel different.
If you would like to stand in one of ours, the serviced offices page lists what is free this month, and a viewing takes twenty minutes.