From Shell to Desk: What a 'Fitted' UK Office Really Costs a Small Team

Few words in UK commercial property work as hard as 'fitted'. In one particulars sheet it means a raised floor, a ceiling grid and a capped-off water supply in a cupboard. In another it means desks, task chairs, monitors, a meeting room and a coffee machine. Both are 'fitted'. The difference between them can comfortably run to six figures, and the rent quoted will look identical either way.

For a small business comparing a conventional lease with a flexible or serviced workspace, the task is to turn these descriptions into a like-for-like budget. This audit sets out what the terms usually mean, which costs sit outside the headline rent, and what to ask before signing.

Four descriptions you will meet

Shell and core. The base building only: structure, envelope, floor plates, WCs and primary services capped at the riser. Nothing here is occupiable without substantial work.

Category A. The landlord's base fit-out, intended to present a lettable floor. Typically a raised floor, a suspended ceiling with lighting, basic heating and cooling, fire detection and power distributed to floor boxes, with services capped off. It is a starting point, not a working office.

Category B. The occupier's fit-out: partitioning, finishes, additional power and data, communications cabling, joinery, kitchenette, AV, signage and often furniture. Landlords increasingly deliver a light version — sometimes called Cat A+, plug and play or turnkey — to appeal to smaller occupiers who cannot fund a project of their own.

Part-fitted. The most elastic term of the four. It may mean the previous tenant's fit-out left in place, with the good chairs removed and the cabling disconnected. Always ask for a schedule of what stays, what goes and what condition it is in.

The bills that sit outside the rent

Fit-out capital. The largest single number for most small teams, and the one most often omitted from a comparison. Indicative Cat B costs for a straightforward scheme have commonly sat in a broad range of roughly £45 to £90 per square foot, with cellular layouts, meeting rooms and high-specification finishes at the upper end. Multiply before you fall in love with the rent.

Furniture and equipment. Desks, chairs, storage, screens and the meeting table are usually a separate line. Budget per person rather than per square foot.

Connectivity. Fibre into the building, wayleaves, riser access and the length of the contract all matter. A three-year broadband agreement in a building you may leave in two is a small but real liability.

Service charge and insurance rent. Frequently quoted per square foot and frequently uncapped. Ask for the last three years of actual expenditure rather than the budget, and ask what is excluded.

Reinstatement. At the end of a conventional lease you may be required to remove your fit-out and return the space to its original configuration. Dilapidations claims can run to tens of thousands of pounds, and the obligation survives long after the last desk has gone.

Rates and utilities. Business rates in England changed at the 2026 revaluation, so check the new rateable value rather than the previous occupier's bill; reliefs differ across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A like-for-like template

Cost line	Basis	Ask the landlord	Ask yourself
Rent	Per sq ft, annual	Rent-free period?	Term and break options
Service charge	Per sq ft	Cap? Three-year history?	What is excluded
Insurance rent	Per sq ft	Fixed or variable?	—
Business rates	Rateable value x multiplier	Previous bill?	Relief eligibility
Fit-out	Per sq ft, one-off	Any capital contribution?	Amortised over how many years
Furniture	Per person, one-off	Included in Cat A+?	Lease or buy
Connectivity	Per month	Wayleave and riser access	Contract length
Reinstatement	Estimate	Schedule of condition?	Cost of removal

The flexible alternative, priced honestly

A flexible workspace bundles rent, rates, service charge, cleaning, utilities, furniture and reception into one monthly figure per desk, usually with meeting room credits. The rate looks high per desk and low per square foot, which is why the two models are so difficult to compare.

Take an illustrative team of fourteen people working hybrid, needing eight desks and two meeting rooms. A conventional lease of 1,100 square feet at £32 per square foot produces £35,200 of rent, with service charge, insurance, rates and utilities adding perhaps £13,000. A £60 per square foot fit-out of £66,000, amortised over seven years, adds about £9,400 a year; furniture roughly £2,400; connectivity £2,400. The all-in figure lands near £62,500, or a little over £500 per desk per month.

Eight desks in a serviced building at £495 each, plus extras for parking and additional meeting room hours, produce a comparable total. The flexible option wins on capital, commitment and speed; the lease wins on control, identity and long-term cost if the team stays and grows. Neither is cheaper in the abstract — only against a specific occupancy plan.

Fewer desks, better rooms

Hybrid working has changed what a small team needs. Where a fit-out planned several years ago might have provided one desk per person and a single meeting room, a 2026 scheme often provides eight desks for fourteen people and spends the saving on focus pods, a proper video room and a client space. That shift affects the budget as much as the floor plan: desks are relatively cheap, whereas acoustically treated rooms, good cameras and reliable audio are not, and they are the parts staff notice every week.

What to secure before signing

Ask for a schedule of condition so the reinstatement obligation is anchored to a documented baseline. Seek a service charge cap, a rent-free period long enough to cover the fit-out, and a landlord contribution where the market allows. Confirm in writing what 'fitted' includes, room by room, and get the broadband and wayleave position before exchange rather than after.

The purpose of this audit is not to make flexible space look expensive or leases look cheap. It is to ensure that two options are compared on the same basis, with the invisible bills placed beside the visible ones. Most small teams discover that the gap between the two models is narrower than the marketing suggests — and that the deciding factor is rarely the rent, but the length of time they are prepared to be wrong about it.