How to calculate number of m² to rent?
Tenant pays for every m2 rented. He therefore should not rent more m² than he needs.
Please make sure you know exactly the number of square meters you need.
Take into consideration how many employees you are today, and by how much you may grow over the lease term you plan to take on. The average leases are signed for 5 years, but still this is a pretty long period of time.
Ask yourself:
how many people you are today and what is your planned growth over the next 3-5-7-10 years,
do you need any additional work places for outsourced employees/subcontractors or any visitors,
do you need conference rooms, kitchenette, break-out area, etc.,
have you already introduced or are you planning on introducing the flexible working time, giving your employees the possibility to work 1-3 days a week from home.
In Switzerland you can roughly estimate your needs in terms of sqm using the following calculation: for every employee you may need 12-17 sqm, where 12 sqm is the ratio for the more open plan office and 17 sqm is the ratio for a private bank or a fiduciary, with separate private offices. This ratio takes into consideration/is inclusive of all common space and conference rooms. This means you just need to multiply your number of employees via the given number and this is approximately the space you should be renting. The more modern the building the closer to the ration you will be, the older the building the more sqm you would need to rent to account for common space, circulation areas, restrooms, etc.
The number of sqm you may need may be also influenced by the space configuration, depth of the space and access to day light, number of male and female employees and a number of toilettes available. There may be a special permit required in order to start working in the given space.
Renting additional space
Often companies are also looking for an additional space or a special conference room that could host a townhall meeting, where all employees could meet at once. Although the idea of such auditorium or conference room is tempting, please remember that it is used on rare occasions. However, it costs a lot of money in terms of year-round rental. Maybe it is worth considering whether you really need. As an alternative, you could rent an outside venue few times a year and save on the rent.
We would suggest, that once you make your initial choice of premises you verify with the landlord feasibility of accommodating of your headcount into the chosen space and if there is any permitting process involved. must ensure that he can use the premises for his activities
Tenant has to make sure he can use the premises to exercise his activities
The permitted use in a lease is how the tenant is allowed to use the premises during the term of the lease.
The landlord will usually explain this in the lease and in any letter of offer or heads of terms of the agreement. For example, the permitted use in a lease might say “office” or “storage” or “industrial” use.
Sometimes office administrative building may be located in the industrial zone, where only the industrial type tenants are allowed. This is why the tenant always needs to verify whether type of activities exercised by him can be admitted into the building he plans to rent and he has to confirm such permitted use in writing in the lease.