Office Design Costs
Are you struggling to persuade staff to return to the office, and considering redesigning your office to entice them back? Perhaps you need more desks, and wonder if you can refurbish rather than move office. Whatever your situation, you're thinking about redesigning your office. If so, one of your key concerns will be the cost.
In this article, we'll give you some typical cost ranges and explain the different factors that affect your office design cost. By the end of this article, you'll be able to calculate roughly how much your office design will cost.
Of course, budget is only one part of preparing for your office design - you'll have many more questions. To learn the answers to those, download your copy of the Definitive Office Design Guide. It will walk you through the most common questions companies have when deciding whether to redesign their office. Download the guide here.
How Much Does Office Design Cost?
When working with a design and build company, you can expect to spend 2-4% of your overall project costs on the design. Most office fit out costs will range from £65 to £160 per square foot. This means that for a 5,000 Sq/ft space, a basic fit out would cost around £325,000, and a mid-spec about £500,000. A cutting-edge space of the same size could cost £825,000 or more.
For a 5,000 sq/ft mid-spec office design, you can expect to pay £10,000 - £20,000. This may seem like a major expense for an office design package. However, it's important to compare the costs to the benefits that such an office design can deliver. A well-designed office can improve talent attraction & retention, wellbeing, and productivity. To learn more about the benefits of office design, read this article.
What Affects the Cost of Your Office Design?
Office Designer
The first factor that will affect how much you have to pay for your office design is the quality and/or reputation of the designer. Working with a large, well-known design & build company with many industry awards will be a lot more expensive than working with a lesser-known design & build company - even for the same quality of design.
Working with a design and build company is not your only option for office design.A freelance designer may be up to 30% cheaper. However, their design would be less comprehensive than a package produced by a design and build company. Also, it may be less practical to deliver. As a result, it will increase the delivery costs.
For very large projects (over 100,000 sq/ft), working with an architectural practice is also worth considering. However, this is much more expensive – around 10-12% of the total project value. It also requires running a tender process, which further increases project costs.
Project Scope
The size and scope of your office fit out or refurbishment will have a big impact on the cost of your office design. The larger the space, the longer it takes to design. This leads to increases in the design costs. Larger offices also tend to have a bigger variety of environments, which increases the time required to develop the design.
Complexity is another element of your project that will affect the cost. If your project involves non-standard or structural works, like creating an extra staircase, this will increase the cost of your design. Refurbishments also tend to be more difficult to design, as the designers do not have the luxury of a blank canvas. They are blending their design concept with what is already there.
Design Scope
The scope of the design will also impact the cost of your office design package. If you are happy with your current office design but need to add more desks, then this is simple to design. On the other hand, if there are serious flaws with your office design, then much more research and design planning will be required. You may even need to engage a workspace consultant. While this will increase the cost of your design by 50% or more, the return on investment can be significant.
As well as the integral elements of your design scope, the extras can also cause the costs to mount up. Computer-generated visuals are often an important part of your design because they help you to envisage the finished space, but they are complex to create and can cost from £300-£1000 each. Video walkthroughs of your space are even more expensive, costing from £5,000 to £10,000.
Specification
The final major factor that will affect how much you pay for your office fit out is the specification level you choose. Lower-specification projects have fewer product and finishes choices available because of budget constraints. This makes them simpler and therefore cheaper to design. High-quality specifications, on the other hand, take more time.
Lower specification designs will also tend to include a lot less variety, both in terms of the different environments and design techniques used across those environments. For a high-specification design, there are a lot more possibilities, so this requires more time and effort to make sure the design is cohesive.
Pitch Design or Paid Design?
If you're researching office design costs, you're probably considering office design as a standalone package. This could be provided by a specialist designer, an interior architect or a design and build company. However, depending on your circumstances, it may be more appropriate to use a pitch design project process. To learn more about how each model works, and their respective benefits and drawbacks, read this article.
How Much Should You Spend on Your Office Design?
Now that you know about typical office design cost ranges and the factors that affect them, you can calculate how much your office design will cost. First, work out how much your office fit out would cost, and then take 2-4% of that cost as a starting point. You can now decide if this is a project worth the investment for your company.
To take the next step, download your Definitive Guide to Office Design. It will help you learn everything you want to know about office design before you actually reach out to an office designer, including what is involved, the costs, timelines, and deliverables. To learn more about office design, read Why Office Design Matters and Office Design Trends for 2024.
