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Practice · As of: 2026

How many m² do we need? The office space calculator for 2026

How much office space does your team really need? In 2026, the answer depends less on headcount than on your working model.

4 min read
By Jan von Urff · published 22/07/2026 · updated 24/09/2026
Example: 40 people, two home-office days (desk-sharing ratio 0.8, i.e. 32 desks; private offices one desk per person), workin planning values 2026, excluding meeting and ancillary space. Coral: range of the planning value.
In short

How many square metres of office space per employee?

As a guideline, allow 12 to 20 m² per workstation, depending on the space concept. What matters more, however, is the working model: the desk-sharing ratio, meeting and focus areas as well as room for growth affect requirements more than headcount alone.

01 The benchmarks

  • Open space: 12–15 m² per person.
  • Team offices: 15–18 m² per person.
  • Private offices: around 20 m² per person.
  • Desk sharing reduces the number of workstations, not the space per desk: with a ratio of 0.8 you plan 80 desks per 100 employees. With private offices it stays at one desk per person.

02 The sharing factor

A common starting point is a desk-sharing ratio of 0.8, i.e. 80 desks per 100 employees. With three office days per week, 60 places per 100 would be needed on paper; the difference to 80 absorbs the busy days. At a ratio of 0.8, the number of places falls by 20 %, at 0.7 by 30 %; part of that space goes into meeting and focus rooms.

Desk sharing reduces the number of desks, not the space per desk.From this article

03 A sample calculation

A team of 40 people with two home-office days per week works on a ratio of 0.8, meaning 32 workstations. Using the planning figures of 12 to 15 m² per open-space desk, that comes to around 400 to 500 m², plus meeting and ancillary areas. How much of this is needed depends on the working model: a team that mainly comes together in the office needs more meeting space than one that works there in a focused way at the desk.

04 The growth reserve

The growth reserve is the allowance for the people who will join during the lease term. In the office calculator it can be set between 0 and 50 %; for most teams, 15 to 25 % is a sensible range. If you need more reserve than that, it is better secured through an option on adjoining space than through empty square metres from day one.

Go to the office space calculator

Team size in, space recommendation out, including the hot-desking ratio and a growth reserve.

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