Finding the right office space takes more than an employee headcount and making room for a few desks. You also need to think about how your team will use the space throughout the day, from collaborating and taking calls to moving around comfortably and stepping away from their screens.
That means factoring in individual workstations and shared areas such as kitchens, breakout spaces, storage, and private meeting rooms. You’ll also need to consider how much room you may need as your team grows.
As a general guide, many businesses allow around 100 to 150 square feet per employee, although the right figure depends on your office layout and working style. Compact, open-plan offices may need less, while businesses with private offices, large meeting rooms, or generous collaborative areas may need more.
So, how much office space does your business actually need? Let’s work it out.
How Much Office Space Does Your Team Need?
Before getting into the numbers, it’s worth pointing out that there are no single official recommended office space requirements per employee. That said, a useful baseline is roughly 100 to 150 square feet (sq ft) per person across the office. This includes an employee’s immediate workstation and their share of meeting rooms, kitchens, breakout areas, corridors, and other shared spaces.
To give you a general idea of office space planning for your team, below is a rough guide:
| Approximate space per employee | Typical setup | |
| Compact office | 80 to 100 sq ft | Efficient open-plan layout with limited communal space |
| Typical modern office | 100 to 150 sq ft | Desks alongside meeting, breakout, and shared areas |
| Spacious office | 150 to 200+ sq ft | Larger workstations, private offices, and generous communal areas |
What is the (legal) minimum office space per person in the UK?
When determining the minimum workplace space required, it’s important to distinguish between the legal minimum and what you should realistically allow when choosing an office.
Under UK law, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require workrooms to provide sufficient floor area, height, and unoccupied space for employees to work safely. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance also states that, in most workplaces, 11 cubic metres of space per person should be regarded as the minimum.
For a room with a 2.4-metre ceiling, this works out at around 49.5 square feet of floor space per person. However, furniture and equipment also take up space, so treat this figure as a legal baseline rather than a target for a comfortable workplace.
How flexible working can reduce space requirements
Office space can be used more efficiently when designed around flexible attendance. For example, the UK Government reported an average of 7.2 m² (around 77.5 sq ft) per full-time employee across its office estate in 2024/25, down 19.1% from its 8.9 m² baseline.
However, this figure shows what can be achieved, rather than what every business should aim for. Your own space requirements will still depend on factors such as layout, facilities, and working patterns.
As mentioned, these figures work best as a planning guide rather than a fixed rule. Two businesses with the same headcount may have very different requirements. For example, a laptop-based team in an open-plan office may be more space efficient, whereas a client-facing business with multiple meeting rooms and private offices will take up more space.
How to Calculate How Much Space You Need
To understand how much office space you and your team will need, you’ll need to crunch some numbers. You can calculate office space requirements with a quick estimate created by using the following formula:
[Number of office employees x target space per employee = approximate office requirement]
Using an example, if you have 20 employees in the office and allow 120 square feet per person, the calculation would look like:
[20 x 120 sq ft = 2,400 sq ft]
Quick office space guide by headcount
Using 100 to 150 square feet per employee as a broad planning range, the table below gives you a quick estimate of how much office space you may need:
| Number of employees | At 100 sq ft per employee | At 150 sq ft per employee |
| 5 | 500 sq ft | 750 sq ft |
| 10 | 1,000 sq ft | 1,500 sq ft |
| 20 | 2,000 sq ft | 3,000 sq ft |
| 30 | 3,000 sq ft | 4,500 sq ft |
| 40 | 4,000 sq ft | 6,000 sq ft |
| 50 | 5,000 sq ft | 7,500 sq ft |
Remember, these figures are only a guide. Your actual requirement for space allocation will depend on peak occupancy, individual workstation needs, shared facilities, hybrid working, and future growth.
1. Start with peak office attendance
Headcount can be a useful starting point if everyone works in the office five days a week. However, this is becoming less common as hybrid working changes how often employees are physically present. According to the ONS, 28% of working adults in Great Britain worked hybrid between January and March 2025.
For businesses with hybrid teams, daily office occupancy can look very different from the total number of people on the payroll, making employee count alone a less reliable measure of how much space you need.
For example, a company might employ 50 people but only have 30 in the office at any given time. In that case, how many desks would the business need? Providing 50 permanent desks would be overkill, leaving a large proportion of workspace unused. So, consider:
- How many employees are normally in the office
- How many are present on your busiest days
- Whether particular teams attend together
- Whether employees have assigned desks or hot-desk
- Whether anyone requires a permanent workstation
With these factors in mind, peak occupancy is a more useful measure than average attendance when calculating the ideal office space for your needs. Understanding your busiest days and typical attendance patterns will give you a much more accurate picture of the space your team actually needs.
2. Consider individual workspace requirements
Not everyone on your team will need the same type of workspace setup. One employee may work primarily on a laptop that requires minimal desk space. Creative teams may require multiple monitors, technical equipment, or large quantities of paperwork, all of which take up more space.
So, consider what your team needs. That might mean factoring in desk dimensions, screens and equipment, secure storage, office chairs (and surrounding space), and any accessibility requirements.
You aren’t looking to fit as many desks as possible into your new office. You’re aiming to create enough usable space for employees to work comfortably once the room is occupied.
3. Consider office size and layout
Office design may impact how efficiently you use floor space. Open-plan and communal workspaces can share circulation routes and team areas, while private offices generally require more space per employee once you account for walls, visitor seating, and extra space for circulation.
The room shape matters too. Pillars, narrow sections, awkward corners, and other fixed features can mean less space. From this view, usable space is often more important than headline square footage.
4. Add shared and collaborative space
It isn’t just desk space you need to consider for your new office. Depending on how your team works, you may also need space for meeting rooms, conference rooms, breakout areas, kitchens, reception areas, phone booths, quiet working zones, and circulation.
The amount of shared and collaborative space you need will vary from business to business. A company that rarely holds in-person meetings may only need limited dedicated meeting space, while a client-facing or highly collaborative team may use meeting rooms every day. If employees regularly join Teams or Zoom calls, phone booths and smaller private rooms can also help prevent an open-plan office from becoming a room full of simultaneous conversations.
These communal areas can take up a significant portion of your overall floor space, so they need to be factored into your calculation from the outset.
With a serviced office, however, many of these facilities may already be available outside your private workspace. Shared kitchens, breakout areas, and meeting rooms can reduce the amount of floor space you need exclusive access to, meaning a smaller private office may still give your team everything it needs.
5. Consider storage requirements
Think about how much physical storage your company requires. Some get by with almost no physical storage, but most businesses need dedicated space for things like documents, equipment, product samples, or personal belongings.
The more storage your business needs, the less floor area is available for desks and communal spaces. That makes it important to balance practical storage requirements with the space your team needs to work comfortably.
6. Factor in hybrid working models
Hybrid working may reduce the number of permanent desks you need, but it can also change how the rest of your office gets used. If employees primarily come in to meet colleagues and collaborate, you may need to dedicate more space to small meeting rooms, breakout spaces, phone booths, and flexible project spaces.
So, rather than simply reducing your office footprint to match attendance, consider both how many people will be present and what they will be using the office for.
7. Allow for future growth
An office that fits your team perfectly today could feel cramped after a few new hires. Before committing to a space, consider:
- Your expected headcount over the next 12 to 24 months
- Planned recruitment
- Which teams are likely to grow
- How long you expect to occupy the office
- Whether you can add more space if required
When searching for new office space, you probably shouldn’t focus on finding an office large enough to meet the demands of your future workforce years down the line. Instead, prioritise flexibility by choosing a space that can support realistic growth without forcing you to move every time your headcount increases.
That’s where serviced and flexible offices can offer a distinct advantage, giving businesses more scope to scale their workspace up or down as their needs change.
Find the Right Office for Your Team
When choosing the right office, no single figure or metric will work for every business. Around 100 to 150 square feet per employee is a useful baseline, but what you actually need will depend on how your team uses the space.
At Quintessential Offices, we help businesses find flexible office space that fits the way their teams work, not just the number of people on the payroll. With access to private offices, meeting rooms, kitchens, breakout areas, and other shared amenities, you can choose a workspace that gives your team what it needs without taking on more space than necessary.
Explore our office locations or reach out to our team at Quintessential Offices to find a workspace that works for your team.
