Office space planning: How much office space do I need? A simple guide for growing teams

August 17, 2026 20 Minute Read

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If you’re asking, “how much office space do I need”, you're likely a rapidly growing business working out what office you actually need. It’s one of the most searched questions in commercial property, and most of the answers make office space planning look far harder than it is, buried under formulas, floor plans and square-foot allowances per person.

For a small or growing business, the question is simpler than most online guidance suggests. This guide sets out the office space planning process in clear terms: what to count, what you can safely leave to others, and the few decisions that change the outcome.

One point is worth making at the outset. Almost everything written about office sizing and space planning was written for large occupiers on traditional leases, where getting the number wrong is expensive and slow to fix. That is not your situation. Flexible space makes the office space decision smaller, less expensive and easy to reverse, and that changes how you should approach the whole question.

The short answer: Start with a desk count

For most small teams, the practical answer to “how much office space do I need” is a desk count. Square footage still matters. It’s how the market measures and prices office space, and it’s how we advise on it. But it isn’t where you begin. If you know how many people need somewhere to sit on a typical day, you know enough to start looking, and to work out roughly how much space your business needs.

Why desk count works in flexible offices

When sizing a flexible office, the most practical starting point is thinking about how many desks your team needs. Unlike traditional leases where you negotiate a floor plate, in flex you're essentially thinking in desks, and the meeting rooms, breakout areas and amenities come with the building around them.

That’s also why the technical side of office space planning doesn’t need to live on your to-do list. Circulation space and circulation routes, fire safety, building regulations, accessibility requirements, fit out, office layout and the sq ft arithmetic behind a floor plate: a good operator has dealt with all of it long before you see the space. When CBRE sizes an office space requirement for a small team, we start with people and how they work.

Want it worked out properly?

If you’d like a precise office space calculation rather than a rule of thumb, CBRE Spacer is our office space calculator. Answer a few questions about your headcount and the way your team works, and the office space calculator turns them into a space requirement you can take to market.

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Three questions to ask at the outset

When a CBRE adviser sits down with a growing business, the office space planning conversation doesn’t open with square footage. It opens with three questions, and between them they do more work than any calculator.

1. How many people, and who actually comes in?

Look at who needs a desk on a typical day, rather than the headcount on the org chart. Ask how many employees you have now, how your team structures are changing, and how the different departments actually use the office. A team of twelve where eight come in on the busiest day needs less office space than twelve in every day. Be realistic about the pattern you have now, and count the people you are about to hire alongside those you already employ.

2. Where does the team want to be?

Commute times, transport links and the character of the area matter more to most small businesses than the space itself. The right location supports your business goals, helps you hire, keeps the people you already have, and puts you near the clients, investors or peers your sector gathers around. Across the businesses we advise, location is the decision people regret getting wrong. Size almost never is.

3. What do you need beyond desks?

Work out the functional requirements the space has to support: focused work, team collaboration and client meetings. A room for the weekly team meeting. A meeting space that looks the part when a client visits, or somewhere to host a launch or an all-hands. The best layouts balance collaborative areas with quiet zones and clear focus areas, so people can concentrate or work together without one crowding out the other. List these early, because in flexible space most of them come with the building rather than adding to your bill, and knowing which ones you care about will separate the right buildings from the merely available ones.

Answer those three questions and you’ve done the hard part of office space planning. Everything else – the floor plans, the space requirements, the total office space, the square footage - follows from them, and most of it is handled for you.

Think in desks

An office for ten people in a good, amenity-rich flex building means ten desks, plus shared access to everything else the building offers. Framed that way, most of the per-person sizing question answers itself, because the operator has already built the answer into the office layout.

When size still matters

If everyone is in five days a week, a slightly bigger private office gives the team breathing room and enough space for the person who joins mid-contract. If you’re hybrid, a smaller office plus good bookable rooms usually beats a bigger office with empty desks. For most teams under fifteen people, that’s the whole calculation, whether you prefer private offices or a more open plan.

A rough rule of thumb

If you want a single figure to work with, you can plan on roughly 50 square feet per person for the private space you take, with the breakout space, amenities and shared areas on top at no extra cost. Meeting rooms are available to book as and when you need them, so you're not paying for large spaces to sit empty It’s a guide rather than a rule and taking office space by the desk means you never have to make the calculation yourself. CBRE tracks occupancy and space requirements across the whole market, so we can tell you where a given building sits against it.

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Room to grow: The strongest argument for flexible space

Here’s the part most guides miss. At 5 to 15 people, you don’t have to get the sizing decision exactly right, because flexible space is built to grow with you. That takes most of the pressure out of the question, and it’s why the sizing conversation should really be a growth conversation about your future growth and growth plans.

Think about what growth looks like for a business your size. You win a contract and hire three people in a quarter. A co-founder relocates. You take on your first apprentice, then two more. In traditional lease each of those changes would be a problem. In flexible space they're manageable, and future-proofing your office space can happen in three directions.

Grow within the building

Take more desks, or step up to a bigger suite, as headcount rises: without a move, without a fit out, often without changing your postcode or your commute. Most operators would rather expand you than lose you, and the good ones plan their buildings around exactly this, so there is usually available space next door when you need it.

Grow across a portfolio

Operators with large portfolios let you move up to a bigger office, a better floor or a different neighbourhood without starting the office search from scratch. CBRE works across the full market of options, so the growth path we map for you isn’t limited to one landlord’s buildings; it’s the whole markets.

Grow in kind

As the business matures, you might step up from a serviced office to a managed office or more bespoke space, move to a new building, or want a different part of town as your team and your clients change. The right first choice keeps every one of those doors open. CBRE understands how start-ups and growing businesses scale. We help you think through the next stage, not just the space you need right now.

What you get beyond the desks

The strongest argument for taking space in an amenity-rich building is everything you’re not paying for, and what it does for workplace efficiency and employee satisfaction.

This is where the old way of thinking about office size really falls over. On a traditional model you’d work out how much non-desk space you need – meeting rooms, kitchen, reception areas – and add it to your requirement. In a good flexible building that space already exists, it’s already staffed and cleaned and furnished, and you share the cost of it with every other business on the floor. It’s a far more cost-effective way to get a productive work environment.

The facilities of a 200-person office

Bookable meeting rooms and a proper meeting table, phone booths and quiet zones for focus, collaborative spaces for team collaboration, breakout and event space, kitchens, showers and bike storage, and in many buildings gyms and wellness rooms that support employee health too. The building runs the booking systems and front-of-house so you don’t have to. For a ten-person business, that means the facilities of a 200-person office without paying for any of it to stand empty when it isn’t in use.

The mistake we see most often

Small teams building their own boardroom or fitting out a town-hall space they use four times a year, when the building or a wider portfolio could provide it on demand. It’s the most common way small occupiers overspend, and among the easiest to avoid: draw on the building’s shared space rather than duplicating it.

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A quick word on hybrid

Hybrid working usually means fewer fixed desks and more bookable rooms and quiet space, which is exactly what flexible buildings are designed for. If your team is in two or three days a week, that’s an argument for flex. Different work styles and hybrid working patterns are easy to support when the office space flexes with you. On sizing, count desks for your busiest regular day and let the building’s bookable space absorb the peaks.

From size to budget

Once you know your desk count, budget is the natural next question. Flexible space comes as a single all-in monthly cost, which is one of its quiet advantages: rent, rates, utilities, cleaning, reception and the shared amenities are wrapped into one predictable figure. It varies widely by area and building – a place in a landmark City tower and one in a neighbourhood hub are different products at different prices.

What moves the price is mostly location, building quality and the depth of the amenity offer, in roughly that order. Which is another reason our three key questions matter more than any formula: they’re the same three things you’re actually paying for.

Spacer will turn your headcount into a sized requirement; our guide to office costs and pricing takes it from there.

Overhead View Of Modern Open Plan Office With Staff Working Around Table And Breakout Seating Area

Your office space planning checklist

Before you look at a single listing, write down six things as a simple step-by-step guide to the planning process:

  • Headcount: Who’s in on a typical day, and your real occupancy pattern
  • Location: The commutes that matter and the area that helps you hire
  • Must-have spaces beyond desks: Meeting rooms, call booths, client-ready space
  • Budget range: The monthly figure you’re working to
  • Timeline: When do you need to be in?
  • Growing room: How much bigger might the team be in 18 months?

Bringing the team into that conversation early tends to support your business goals and lift employee satisfaction, and it keeps the plan honest as needs change. If you can answer these questions, you’re ready to look at buildings – or to hand the list to someone who looks at buildings all day. These are the practical tips that turn office space planning from a chore into a quick conversation.

When to talk to CBRE

You can shortlist buildings yourself, and plenty of teams do. The case for a conversation is everything you can’t see from the listings sites: CBRE works across the whole market - every major operator, buildings that never reach the aggregators, and live knowledge of what similar teams are choosing and paying.

The right moment to talk is earlier than most teams think. The best options in any area move quickly, so scope the office space requirement as soon as you suspect your current space won’t see out the year. Leave it until you only have a few weeks before you need to be in a new space, and the choice narrows to whatever is still available.

The difference CBRE’s Flex team makes

Free commute analysis for your real team. Established relationships with every operator. Sight of space that is never advertised, including new space before it is listed. And because we do this daily, a view on the office space requirement you’ll have in two years while you’re still working out this one. The advice costs nothing, and it sharpens the shortlist.

Two ways to take the next step

  • Run the numbers yourself. CBRE Spacer, office space calculator turns your headcount into a space requirement in minutes.
  • Talk to the CBRE Flex team. Tell us your headcount, your area and your timeline, and we’ll shortlist the market for you.

CBRE also advises landlords and flexible workspace operators on their own space strategy – see our occupier services pages.

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Growth in practice: The OpenAI story

OpenAI's London growth is a well-documented example of the flex-to-conventional path. It launched in London from flexible workspace, grew there, and signed a conventional lease only once its needs had settled. Read London’s Future: AI-Driven Office Demand for more on how AI companies are reshaping office demand.

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