A broker tells you: "1,800 sq ft, fits 30 people comfortably."
Having sat on both sides of that sentence — drafting it as part of a landlord's marketing pitch, and later watching a managed office provider run the same math when planning out a floor — here's what's actually underneath it.
Super built-up isn't carpet
1,800 sq ft is almost always super built-up area — it includes stairwells, lobby, shared walls. Your actual usable carpet area is often only 1,300–1,450 sq ft after the efficiency ratio.
Fixed infrastructure comes off first
Before a single desk goes down, deduct:
- Reception: 80–120 sq ft
- 1–2 meeting rooms: 100–150 sq ft each
- Pantry: 100–150 sq ft
- Server / IT room: 50–80 sq ft
That's 400–600 sq ft gone before anyone's seated.
Then circulation, which isn't optional
What's left gets divided by per-seat allocation — usually 45–60 sq ft for open bench seating — minus another 15–20% for aisles and fire-safety clearance, which is a compliance requirement, not a design choice.
Run the real math and that "fits 30" space usually fits 20–25 — comfortably, with a meeting room and a place to make coffee.
One thing worth knowing
From the managed office side specifically: their seat-count math is usually tighter and more honest than a traditional broker's, because they're the ones managing the complaints if it's overcrowded. That doesn't mean take the number on faith — it means the traditional lease seat count is where I'd push hardest for the actual floor plan.
Before you sign based on a headline seat count: ask for the floor plan, not just the number. It takes ten minutes to check and it changes what you're actually paying per person.