Find me serviced offices to rent - search for serviced office space in the UK

Looking to rent serviced offices?

Office Genie maintains a comprehensive UK database of serviced office space to help with your serviced office search.

Serviced offices are now a huge part of the UK office space market, and are a particularly viable choice for small and startup businesses who want a flexible amount of space and who don't want to commit to long-term leases and contracts.

What is serviced office space?

Serviced office space is a completely different proposition to conventional leased office space. In a conventional rented office, you pay for the space and you have to manage it. If you move into a serviced office then a management company (the serviced office provider) will be running the building and managing all the building services, normally including but not limited to:

• office furniture and decor
• reception (physical and phone answering)
• broadband and networking
• IT support
• heating, lighting and ventilation
• building maintenance
• post

How do serviced offices work?

Serviced offices have a number of typical features which make them a useful alternative to conventional office space for many small businesses:

• if space is available, it's typically available immediately
• choose from different qualities of space, from basic to executive offices
• rent space by the desk
• expand and contract as you like: take on more desks and reduce the number of desks when it suits the business
• pay one monthly bill for all office services
• flexible rolling contract; no long-term lease and no commercial lease negotiation
• meet neighbouring businesses in a more open environment (serviced offices are often referred to as 'business centres' for this reason)
• many larger serviced office providers run desk schemes which even allow you to move flexibly between locations

If your business moved into a serviced office (or business centre) tomorrow, you'd be up and running in a matter of hours (or even minutes). No need to install office furniture and arrange broadband and utilities - just bring along your laptops and get started.

Is serviced office space right for me?

There's simply no definition of what type of business suits serviced office space, except maybe to say that serviced office space is particularly well suited to small and startup businesses. Perhaps the key factor is the balance between control and an easy life. Serviced offices make life very easy, inasmuch as you can get on with running the business and not worry about running a building, but you do lose control over things like security and office decor (which are managed by the serviced office provider).

A serviced office is also a useful option if you just want temporary office space - for example if you are between offices or a running a short to medium term project in a particular location.

How much does serviced office space cost?

According to our figures, the national average for a serviced office is approx. £311/desk/month (£529/desk in London, £207/desk in Birmingham, £188/desk in Manchester – figures from May 2011). There are plenty of cheap serviced offices available for rent too – the cheapest serviced office space on Office Genie is about £60/desk/month, but obviously you have to look around hard for these kind of prices.

The rental cost is approximately the same as a shared office. The cheapest way to rent space remains a conventional leased office, which we reckon works out at less than £100/desk/month on average. What you're paying for in a serviced office is the building management, the lack of hassle, and the flexibility, plus remember the monthly fee usually includes utility bills.

What's the difference between serviced offices and shared offices?

Shared office schemes are a bit like home-made versions of serviced office schemes. The key difference is that you'll normally be physically sharing a room with other people in a shared office scheme, whereas in a serviced office you'd generally get your own office. The service level is also typically higher in a serviced office (for example reception and post services would usually be included in a serviced office but not a shared office), largely because in a shared office the host business usually (but not always) has another more important business activity.

Shared offices can be a little cheaper because you get a little less included, and are generally more restrictive in terms of size (for example it might be difficult to up- and down-size in a shared office).

What next in my serviced office search?

Use the serviced office search box at the top of this page to search our current database of available services office space to let.

If you're interested in shared office space, then you can use our shared office search, or use our desk space search to compare shared and serviced office schemes side-by-side by cost/desk/mth.