Setting up a new office in Bengaluru: what the interiors cost, and what the lease asks of you

A quote is only part of the bill. A firm quotes for the build. If yours leaves out the meeting tables, sofas and storage, they come on top, with a buffer for changes and 18% GST on all of it. One Bengaluru firm's own sample budgets add them this way:

What you pay out before you move in is about ₹79 lakh to ₹1.1 crore (our sum): the interiors all in, the lease deposit (₹12.5 to ₹25 lakh on a rent of ₹2.5 lakh a month, question 5) and the building's work deposit (₹50,000 to ₹3 lakh, question 8). You get the two deposits back when you leave.

The price moves with what people see and sit on. One Bengaluru firm prints both its levels line by line. About half the gap between them is the floor, the desks, the cabins and the chairs. Its basic lines add up to ₹42 to ₹70 lakh, more than the two firms above. Rates differ from firm to firm, so get three quotes.

A tech park floor costs more. The same firm puts Electronic City and BTM at ₹1,600 to ₹3,200 a sq ft, Whitefield, ORR and Manyata at ₹2,200 to ₹4,500, and MG Road at ₹2,800 to ₹5,500. Colliers' Bangalore page gives ₹3,500 to ₹5,000 a sq ft for a Class A office with its furniture, and Cushman and Wakefield ₹6,027 for a collaborative hybrid workplace.

GST is 18%, and you may not get it back. It's charged on a fit-out contract and on a designer's fee. The GST law blocks the credit on work that builds or renovates a building on your own account. The Supreme Court said in October 2024 that a building can count as plant case by case. We found no ruling on a tenant's office. Ask your CA before you sign.

Firms quote per sq ft of carpet area, the floor you actually use. Rent is often charged on a bigger area (question 4), so don't multiply a firm's rate by the area on your lease.

Where you land in your own range depends on the designer and the desks. A low-cost designer and ready-made desks put you near ₹29 lakh, below the firm, but a top designer and good desks put you above it.

• What the firm's price carries: the design and a project manager (one Bengaluru firm prices that line at ₹80 to ₹140 a sq ft, ₹2 to ₹3.5 lakh here), the workstations, the 8 to 12 trades it lines up, its margin, and support after handover.
• Going your own way costs you the days on site, and there's nobody else to answer when it runs late.

If two firms quote the same scope at very different prices, the gap is usually in what's left out or in the brands. Line the quotes up as question 9 says.

Ask the landlord the rent for the same floor bare and fitted. If the fitted floor is ₹35 a sq ft more, it's cheaper than doing a basic office yourself over five years. If it's ₹65 more, it isn't.

• Leaving early changes the sum. If you leave at the end of a three-year lock-in, the same fit-out works out to ₹73 to ₹91 a sq ft a month, so a fitted floor looks better still.
• You don't pick the layout. Count the desks, cabins and meeting rooms against your team before you sign.
• Taking over the last tenant's interiors. Nobody publishes a price. Ask the landlord whether you pay for them, get their state in writing, and ask who strips them out when you leave (question 5).

Co-working desks

₹1.65 to ₹3.15 lakh a month

Your own office

About ₹3.6 to ₹3.9 lakh a month

30 fixed desks at ₹5,499 to ₹10,499 each

Rent ₹2.5 lakh, plus the interiors spread over five years

Internet, AC and housekeeping in, its page says

Power, internet, cleaning and maintenance on top

Deposit and lock-in: not on its page, so ask

A ₹12.5 to ₹25 lakh deposit, and the interiors up front

The operator fixes the AC

Often a three-year lock-in (question 5)

A shared floor in the operator's look

Your layout and your brand

When your own office wins on money. Against the most expensive desks, only if the rent is under about ₹70 to ₹80 a sq ft, you stay the full five years, and power and upkeep are cheap. Against the cheapest desks it would need rent under about ₹11 to ₹22, so desks win there.

• The rent may be on a bigger area. In Apple's Bengaluru lease, reported in 2025, the area the rent was charged on was 37% bigger than the carpet, and Colliers' Bangalore page puts the gap at 30% to 40% of the rent area. That makes the rent alone about ₹3.4 to ₹4.2 lakh, plus 18% GST, which a GST-registered company can usually claim back.
• ₹100 a sq ft is a Grade A rent. If you find space in an ordinary building for much less, that's when your own office starts to make sense.
• A managed office is a floor an operator lays out and runs for you, priced per seat. In August 2024 one operator's new Whitefield centre was reported at about ₹9,000 a seat a month and up. We found no 2026 price on an operator's own page.
• Who fixes things. At co-working the operator does. In your own office you need a facility person or company, and someone to call for the AC, the internet and the power backup.

If you know you'll be about this size for five years and want your own layout, fit out.

Bare shell and warm shell. A bare shell has the outer walls, a basic floor, and unfinished AC and lighting. A warm shell adds the floor, the AC and some wiring. Sources disagree on whether a warm shell has lights, so have the lease list what you're handed.

Get these into the lease:

• Rent-free months. Colliers says 2 to 6 are usual for an office in Bengaluru. IBM's lease for 1.6 lakh sq ft had 45 days. Ask for the weeks your interiors need (question 7).
• The deposit. A founder quoted by Business Today was asked for ten months on a ₹50,000-a-month office. Colliers says 1 to 3 months are paid when you sign the letter of intent.
• The lock-in. Usually 1 year on a 3-year lease and 3 years on a 5-year one. Leaving early can cost the rent for the rest of the lock-in (Colliers), or up to a year's rent (Brigade), so get the figure for your lease in writing.
• Putting it back. Brigade says most leases make you return the space to a bare shell, but Colliers says only if it was agreed at the start. Knight Frank puts it at about ₹250 a sq ft, or ₹6 lakh here. Less built-in carpentry now means less to rip out later.
• The carpet area, in writing. Rent is often charged on a bigger area (question 4).
• The power load. An office draws 8 to 10 W a sq ft, so 2,500 sq ft needs 20 to 25 kW. Before you sign, ask the building's sanctioned load. If you need more, a BESCOM increase takes weeks, and one firm puts it at ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 a kW.

• What a design-and-build firm lines up. One Bengaluru firm says a fit-out uses 8 to 12 subcontractors, with the carpentry often made in workshops in Peenya or Bommasandra. Go it alone and you line them up.
• Ask a project manager whether their percentage is on the building work or the whole budget, because that changes the bill.
• Checks worth making: who will be on site every day, a past bill of quantities, and an office they finished that you can visit.

1. Week 1

   Site survey. Bring in the IT and cabling firm now: cables, AC ducts and power points have to go in before the ceiling closes.

2. Weeks 2 to 6

   The concept design, then the detailed drawings and the bill of quantities. Get the design signed off in writing by whoever has the final say.

3. Weeks 6 to 9

   The building approves the drawings, and you order. Order desks and chairs now: ready-made ones take 7 to 14 days, custom ones 3 to 6 weeks. Ask the landlord about your sign.

4. Weeks 9 to 17

   The building work, 6 to 8 weeks: civil work and cabins, ceiling, electrical, AC, fire, cabling and the floor. Give notice on your old space once this has started.

5. The last two weeks of work

   The finishing parts, once the site is mostly done: green walls, murals and panelling.

6. Weeks 17 to 18

   Snags and handover, a deep clean, then the move. Book the lift and a weekend slot with the building.

7. After you move

   Register under Shops and Establishments within 30 days, add the new office to your GST registration, and plan the opening.

• Firms' own timelines are shorter. One gives 4 to 6 weeks in all up to 3,000 sq ft. Another says 60 to 90 days from design sign-off to handover, up to 15,000 sq ft.
• Rushing costs more: one firm adds 12% to 18% to go one and a half times as fast, and 30% to 50% to go twice as fast.
• Redoing an old office? Add 1 to 2 weeks to strip it out.
• The opening pooja and decor have their own guide.

• Fire. Since a 2023 amendment to the Karnataka Fire Force Act, anyone building a high-rise of 21 m or more needs a fire NOC. That NOC is for the building, and we found nothing saying a tenant's interiors need one of their own. Moving sprinklers and detectors is part of the job: one firm prices fire work at ₹80 to ₹140 a sq ft on a basic office.
• Trade licence: sources disagree. A developer's guide says a general IT or consulting office usually needs only the Shops and Establishments registration, and a trade licence is for storage, food or public-health work. A fit-out firm prices a trade licence renewal or change-of-use NOC at ₹50,000 to ₹3 lakh. It depends on what your business does, so ask your CA.
• Your sign. The landlord has to agree, and Karnataka wants 60% of a business nameboard in Kannada.

The line list. Ask every firm for a price on each of these, with the brand and grade named:

• Civil work and cabins, and the glass
• Floor, ceiling and paint
• Electrical and lights, and the wire
• AC, fire, and IT cabling
• Workstations and chairs, by model
• Pantry and washrooms
• Design and project management
• GST, shown on its own line

What's usually left out. One firm lists AV, structured cabling, acoustics, signage, reception furniture, kitchen appliances, blinds, CCTV, fire upgrades and the project management fee, and says to add 15% to 20% if a quote leaves them out. That's a different list from question 1's furniture and buffer, so check each line once.

• How much to hold back. No Bengaluru firm we read publishes it. Agree a number before you sign, and a defects period after you move in.
• Extra work. Changes halfway are priced separately. Get the rates for extra work in the contract.
• The cheapest quote. With the brand and grade in writing, you can check the ply and wire on site.
• The furniture. Ask for it as its own lines, with the brand and model, and price one chair yourself.
• If it goes badly. With payments tied to work done, you never owe much more than what's built. Ask for drawings of what was actually built at handover.