Flexible Office Leases Explained

This is what serviced offices and coworking operators use. You buy the right to occupy space and use services, not an interest in the property. Terms run from one month to three years, notice is short, the document is usually ten to fifteen pages, and there are no dilapidations at the end beyond fair wear and tear.

The trade off is that a licence gives you no security of tenure. When the term ends, renewal pricing is whatever the market allows.

A managed office sits in the middle. You get your own private, fitted floor with your branding and layout, on a single all inclusive monthly cost, usually for two to five years. The operator handles fit out, furniture, IT and facilities.

It is the strongest option for teams of roughly twenty to a hundred and fifty who want identity and control without a capital fit out spend or a full repairing lease.

A lease gives you the property interest and, if not contracted out, statutory renewal rights. It also gives you rates, service charge, insurance, dilapidations, a rent review and a fit out to fund. Below about fifty people it rarely wins on total cost or hassle.

Watch for break clauses with conditions attached: a break that requires vacant possession and full payment of all sums is easy to fail.

Under ten people and uncertain: licence. Ten to fifty and stable: compare a licence against a managed agreement carefully. Fifty plus with a settled plan: managed or lease, run side by side on a five year total cost basis.

OfficeZen compares all three for your requirement and negotiates the terms, free of charge.