Startup Office Costs: Rent, Internet, Furniture, Coffee and Everything Else
The rent is about 60% of what an office actually costs. Here is the rest of it, line by line, for a ten person team, both ways.
Ask a founder what their office costs and they will tell you the rent. Ask their accountant and you get a longer answer.
Take a ten person team. Here is every line, both ways, with nothing hidden in a footnote.
Ten seats in a coworking space
| Line | Monthly |
|---|---|
| 10 seats at the ₹8,499 median | ₹84,990 |
| Electricity, water, housekeeping, tea | Included |
| Internet with a backup line | Included |
| Meeting rooms beyond the free hours | ₹3,000 to ₹8,000 |
| Parking, two cars | ₹0 to ₹8,000 |
| GST at 18%, claimable if registered | ₹15,298 |
| Realistic monthly | ₹1,03,000 to ₹1,16,000 |
| Deposit, one time | ₹85,000 to ₹1,70,000 |
| Furniture and fit out | Nil |
Your own 1,000 sq ft
Ten people at 50 sq ft each is 500 sq ft of carpet. Add a meeting room, a pantry corner and circulation and you are at 700. Landlords quote super built-up, so at 30% loading you rent about 1,000 sq ft. In a decent suburb at ₹90 per sq ft:
| Line | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Rent, 1,000 sq ft at ₹90 | ₹90,000 |
| Maintenance at ₹15 per sq ft | ₹15,000 |
| Electricity | ₹12,000 |
| Internet, two lines | ₹6,000 |
| Housekeeping, one person part time | ₹9,000 |
| Pantry supplies, tea, coffee, water | ₹6,000 |
| Security share, if not in maintenance | ₹3,000 |
| Repairs and the thing that breaks | ₹3,000 |
| GST at 18% on rent | ₹16,200 |
| Realistic monthly | ₹1,60,200 |
| Deposit, six months | ₹5,40,000 |
| Fit out at ₹1,200 per sq ft | ₹12,00,000 |
| Brokerage, one month | ₹90,000 |
So what is the real gap
About ₹50,000 a month, which sounds manageable. The part that is not manageable is the ₹18.3 lakh you hand over before anyone sits down, and the three year commitment underneath it.
Put differently: the coworking premium for a ten person team is roughly ₹6 lakh a year. The lease asks for three times that upfront, and asks you to be certain about 2029.
- No brokerage
- Free visits
- We negotiate
The lines people forget entirely
- Rent escalation. Typically 5% a year, compounding across the lease.
- Air conditioning outside office hours. Billed hourly in most Grade A buildings, and it catches out teams that work late.
- Property tax and insurance, depending on how the lease is written.
- Making good at the end. Many leases require you to return the space as you found it. That is a bill on the way out.
- Somebody's time. An office needs a person managing it. At ten people that person is a founder.
The one number to carry around
All in, a properly run office in an Indian metro costs ₹10,000 to ₹16,000 per person per month once everything is counted. If someone quotes you ₹6,000 a head, they have left something out, and it is usually the fit out or the deposit.
Tell us what you need. We take it from there, wherever in India you are looking.
Find my office →- ✓No brokerage
- ✓We shortlist
- ✓We book visits
- ✓We negotiate
- ✓We do the paperwork