How much office space do you need? Sq ft per seat in Chennai

Ask three owners how many people a 2,500 sq ft floor takes and you'll hear three answers: 25, 40, and "depends how you sit". All three can be right. But there is a sensible middle, and the offices S N Enterprises has on lease show where it is.

Here is how many seats Chennai offices of each size actually have, as their owners have fitted them:

From SNE's office listings on 4 November 2026: the median, and the middle half, of offices within 15% of each size. Seats are as the owner has fitted the space; a different layout can add or lose a few.

Turn it round and start from your headcount. Across SNE's 180 offices with a seat count, the median is 80 sq ft a seat, and half of them fall between 62 and 108. The figure falls as teams grow:

Why small teams pay for more space a head: a reception, a cabin or two, a meeting room and a pantry take the same room whether 10 people sit outside them or 60. SNE's offices have three cabins at the median.

• Coworking and managed offices sit tighter. CBRE's 2025 report on India's flexible workspace puts seat density at about 65 sq ft of leasable area a seat; Knight Frank gave 65–70 sq ft in 2020.
• Conventional offices ran about 80 sq ft an employee before the pandemic (ANAROCK, 2021).
• The figure has been shrinking for years: about 225 sq ft an employee in 2009, about 100 by 2016 (99acres).
• Global companies plan far more. CBRE's 2026 global survey, mostly of large firms, found about 190 sq ft a seat. India runs at less than half that.

SNE's 80 sits between a coworking floor and a corporate one: most of its offices are furnished by the owner, at workstation density, with a few cabins.

Every figure above is on the area the rent is charged on, which for Chennai offices is usually the super built-up (chargeable) area. The carpet area you can actually furnish is smaller. Knight Frank's coworking figures assume about 70% efficiency, which makes 80 sq ft chargeable roughly 55–60 sq ft of carpet a seat.

There's no published loading for Chennai office buildings, so ask for both figures for any space you see. How each area is measured: carpet, built-up and super built-up.

• Cabins. Each one takes the room of several workstations. A team that needs many (a CA firm, legal, senior managers) should plan near the top of the range.
• Meeting rooms. Office planners suggest one for every 15–20 people; a six-seat room is about 120–150 sq ft (PrimeDesk).
• Reception, pantry, server room and storage. Fixed whatever the headcount, which is why small offices run higher per seat.
• Hybrid work. Indian firms still plan close to a desk a head: in CBRE's 2025 India occupier survey, 94% wanted staff in at least three days a week, and 52% fully in office.
• Hiring. Leave room for the next 12–18 months, or ask the owner for first refusal on more space in the building.

The National Building Code (2016, Part 4, Table 3) counts offices at 10 m² of gross floor area a person, about 108 sq ft. That number sets the fewest people the exits and stairs must be designed for; it isn't a minimum desk size. A floor seated at 60–80 sq ft a person holds more people than the code assumed, so ask about the building's exits and its fire NOC.

1. 40 people today and 10 more this year: plan for 50 seats.
2. At about 80 sq ft a seat, look at 4,000 sq ft offices, which typically seat 40 to 70.
3. Need two more cabins and a meeting room than the space has? Look nearer 4,500–5,000 sq ft.
4. Rent at ₹70 a sq ft, typical for SNE's offices: 4,000 sq ft is ₹2.8 lakh a month, about ₹5,600 a seat, before maintenance and 18% GST.
5. Deposit: 10 months is the norm in SNE's listings, so about ₹28 lakh up front. The move-in cost calculator adds it all up.