According to the Total Office Cost Survey (TOCS) 2010 the cost of renting a serviced office can often work out to be less than taking a conventional lease on an office with all the associated costs that brings.

The TOCS survey looks at the build up of costs for leasing an office including rent, rates, annualised costs, and hard and soft facilities management and makes a comparison across a number of cities in the UK.  To compare this with the cost of using a serviced office, Instant looked at the average cost of a workstation in the same cities, and added an allowance for additional services used such as telephones and internet provision.

The results were surprising in that for 35 of the 51 cities studied, serviced offices worked out as a cheaper option. This is true even in the West End of London and the most marked difference in price is found in Newcastle. These results reflect the fact that many serviced office suppliers have adjusted more quickly to the current market conditions than have suppliers of space on a traditional basis and demonstrates that serviced offices can offer very good value for money.

In the past, serviced offices have been perceived as being expensive, but this survey shows that they can offer a corporate good value for money when compared to a traditional property acquisition, especially when the lease term is going to be relatively short. The use of serviced offices will result in a more balanced property portfolio and will give a degree of agility that is vital in the present uncertain economic climate.

 The Total Office Costs survey 2010 was carried out by Actium Consult, with Instant providing the data for serviced offices. For more information on this survey you can contact Andrew Proctor at Actium Consult (01483 222575) or Seb Royle at Instant (020 7298 0633).