How much office space
does your team need?
In 30 seconds: space per employee, desks and rent in Hamburg, calculated with the planning values from our advisory work. Below: office layouts compared, a table for 10 to 200 employees and three real projects.
Worked example with the default settings: 50 employees, Open Space, 2 home-office days per week, 20 % growth buffer.
RecommendationSpace requirement by team size
Lettable area in m² without home office and without growth buffer, calculated as in the calculator above. The last column shows open plan with two home-office days per week.
| Employees | Open Space | Team offices | Private offices | Open plan, 2 days home office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 120–150 | 150–180 | 200 | 96–120 |
| 20 | 240–300 | 300–360 | 400 | 192–240 |
| 30 | 360–450 | 450–540 | 600 | 288–360 |
| 50 | 600–750 | 750–900 | 1,000 | 480–600 |
| 75 | 900–1,125 | 1,125–1,350 | 1,500 | 720–900 |
| 100 | 1,200–1,500 | 1,500–1,800 | 2,000 | 960–1,200 |
| 150 | 1,800–2,250 | 2,250–2,700 | 3,000 | 1,440–1,800 |
| 200 | 2,400–3,000 | 3,000–3,600 | 4,000 | 1,920–2,400 |
More on specific sizes: offices for 10, 20, 50 and 100+ employees, each with the spaces available right now.
Office layouts compared
Open Space
12 to 15 m² per person. The most compact layout, because corridors and walls disappear. Good for teams that talk a lot and want to reconfigure quickly. Without quiet rooms, phone booths and acoustics it gets loud; these spaces belong in the plan from the start, otherwise you end up with an open floor nobody likes working in.
Team offices
15 to 18 m² per person. Rooms for four to twelve people, split by team. Quieter than open plan, while keeping short distances within the team. In older Hamburg buildings with fixed grids and load-bearing walls it is often the layout the floor plan dictates anyway.
Private offices
Around 20 m² per person. Common in law firms, consultancies and anywhere confidential conversations are part of daily work. The most expensive layout per person, because every room needs its share of corridor. We do not apply desk sharing here: people with their own office rarely share it.
Combination office
Open team zones plus individual rooms for managers, calls or focused work. The most common solution we see in Hamburg. In the calculator, use team offices and mention the number of private rooms in the briefing; depending on their share they shift the result noticeably.
Desk sharing and activity-based working
Nobody has a fixed desk; instead there are zones for teamwork, quiet work and exchange. It saves desks but costs space for meetings and social areas. How much can really be saved only shows in actual office attendance, not in the home-office policy on paper (see the first example below).
Three projects from our practice
Team offices and open plan, two home-office days a week. The lease covers 900 m². On three days a week at most five to eight people are in the office, so only about 500 m² would be needed. Our advice since: measure who actually comes in before planning.
Mostly open plan, everything on one level, planned for growth from 150 to 200 employees. That is around 13.5 m² per desk at the target size, right in the middle of our planning value for open plan.
Open plan with quiet spaces, a large social area with a big kitchen, bar, DJ booth, dance floor and two large roof terraces that count towards the lettable area. On top of that the company is growing very fast, and the space is designed for more staff. That adds up to around 20 m² per current employee, much more than pure open plan, but at the current pace of growth that may look very different again in 12 months: the space is designed for more than 250 desks so that, unlike in previous years, the next move is not due after two years. Fully occupied, that is under 14 m² per desk, right in our planning value for open plan. The difference lies in areas that are not desks and in the growth already planned in.
What the law requires and what a good office needs
The German workplace rule ASR A1.2 sets minimum areas: 8 m² for the first workstation in an office room, 6 m² for each additional one, and 12 to 15 m² per workstation in open-plan offices. This means the floor area of the work rooms. Corridors, kitchen, meeting rooms, reception and technical rooms come on top.
In Hamburg, the lettable area in the lease is almost always measured according to the gif guideline (MF-G) and includes a share of corridors and lobbies used by the whole building. That is why 700 m² of lettable area does not fit as many desks as a calculation with ASR would suggest, and why our planning values are higher. In the end, how well a space is cut matters more than its size. More in the glossary.
Frequently asked questions about office space
How much office space does one employee need?
Depending on the layout, 12 to 15 m² in open plan, 15 to 18 m² in team offices and around 20 m² in private offices. These are lettable areas including meeting rooms, kitchen, circulation and common areas, i.e. the figure that appears in the lease. The legal minimum is considerably lower (see workplace rule ASR A1.2).
How large does an office for 50 employees need to be?
Without home office, 600 to 1,000 m², depending on the layout. If the team works from home two days a week, 40 desks are enough in open plan, which is 480 to 600 m². A growth buffer comes on top.
What does an office for 20 employees cost in Hamburg?
For 240 to 400 m² at 18.00 to 28.00 €/m² net, the range across Hamburg districts excluding prime locations, the rent is 4,320 to 11,200 € per month. Service charges come on top, typically 3.80 to 5.20 €/m² according to our lease data. In the calculator you can pick a district; it then uses the median there.
What is desk sharing and how much space does it save?
Several employees share desks. With one home-office day per week we plan 0.9 desks per person, with two days 0.8 and from three days 0.7. With two home-office days a team needs roughly 20 % fewer desks. Whether the total area really shrinks depends on how much of it goes back into meeting and social space.
What is the difference between lettable area and usable area?
In Hamburg, lettable area is almost always measured according to the gif guideline (MF-G). It includes the area used exclusively (MF/G-1) and a share of jointly used areas such as corridors and lobbies (MF/G-2). Less space is therefore usable for desks than the lease states. How much less depends on the floor plan: a badly cut 800 m² space often seats fewer people than a well-cut 700 m².
What minimum area does the law require?
The German workplace rule ASR A1.2 requires at least 8 m² for the first workstation in an office room and 6 m² for each additional one, and 12 to 15 m² per workstation in open-plan offices. This refers to the floor area of the work rooms, not the lettable area with corridors, kitchen and meeting rooms. Our planning values are therefore higher.
How much buffer should you plan for growth?
The calculator uses 20 % by default. If you grow faster or are unsure, an expansion option on adjacent space in the lease is often better than space that stays empty for years. We usually negotiate that as part of the deal.
How we calculate
The basis is our planning values from advising tenants in Hamburg, as of August 2026, calculated as lettable area (gif) including meeting rooms, kitchen, circulation and common areas: open plan 12 to 15 m², team offices 15 to 18 m², private offices approx. 20 m² per employee. For open plan and team offices, home office lowers the number of desks through the desk-sharing ratio (1 day: 0.9 · 2 days: 0.8 · 3 or more days: 0.7); for private offices we count one desk per person. The growth buffer is added to the total. Without a district, rent is calculated at 18.00 to 28.00 €/m² net, the district averages in Hamburg, not prime rents.
Next: renting an office in Hamburg with prices by district, the office fit check for your current office, or a free briefing straight away.