Relocate or Refurbish Office Lease?

A lease expiry is a good moment to step back and ask whether your office still works for the business: stay and refurbish the space you're in, or move somewhere new. Either can be the right call. The better choice is usually the one that suits where the business will be in five years, not the one with the lower number on the first quote. Hub Interiors has delivered more than 450 commercial interior projects from our Perth base, including office refurbishments and relocations. The questions below are the ones we work through with clients at this stage.

What Your Current Office Space Can and Can't Do

Start with what the building can support. Check power capacity, air conditioning and data infrastructure against how the business runs now and how it will run in a few years. An office that's sound but looks tired is a far easier fix than one where the services have hit their limit. Our in-house construction team, led by a registered builder, can tell you early what's fixable and what isn't, so the lease decision rests on facts rather than guesses.

Then look at the layout. Access, natural light, the number of meeting rooms and how well the floor plate suits hybrid work all matter. A building with a great location and a rigid layout needs a different fix from one that's well planned but too small.

Office Refurbishment or Office Relocation, Weighing the Real Costs

Both options carry capital cost, but it's spread differently. A refurbishment spends money on a space you already occupy. A relocation adds removal costs, make-good on the old tenancy, landlord approvals on the new one, and a fitout that starts from whatever condition the new space is in.

Disruption needs to be counted too. A refurbishment can usually be staged around a working business. A relocation packs the disruption into a few intense weeks around the move. Compare the two costs together rather than one at a time.

Lease terms change the maths. A heavy make-good clause makes leaving more expensive, so read it well before the decision point rather than at exit. Refurbishing also needs landlord consent, and anything you add may increase what you have to remove when you eventually leave.

Landlord incentives on a renewal or a new lease

Staying usually means signing a new lease, and a renewal is a negotiation. Most landlords would rather keep a tenant than carry a vacancy, so this is the time to ask for a contribution towards a refurbishment. The landlord of a new building will offer incentives to win you as well. Get both offers in hand before you compare costs, because the incentive can change which option comes out cheaper.

Planning Space Requirements for Growth, Not Just Current Fit

An office that fits today can still be the wrong long term decision if it can’t accommodate growth. Relocating makes sense when the current premises can't scale, whether that's floor area, layout or building services. Refurbishing makes more sense when there's room to grow and the real problem is that the space no longer matches how the business works. Getting this wrong is expensive either way: moving when a refurbishment would have done the job, or refurbishing an office you'll outgrow in a year or two.

Work out how much space you need, not just how many people you employ. Three questions help:

1. How much of the current floor area is used day to day?
2. How has hybrid work changed that?
3. What growth do you realistically expect over the new lease term?

Brand, Image and the Case for a New Space

Clients, candidates and staff all read something into your office. A dated space in the wrong location can hurt recruitment, retention and client confidence even when it works fine day to day. A good refurbishment at your current address can often lift how the business presents as much as a move would, usually with less disruption. People notice when a business hasn't invested in the place they spend their week. This is harder to put a number on than capital cost or services capacity, but leave it out and the comparison is incomplete.

Getting Expert Input Before You Refurbish or Relocate

The usual mistake is deciding before anyone has scoped what each option involves. Hub Interiors offers an initial consultation and space planning, with architects, interior designers and project managers who bring 90+ years of combined experience to scoping a refurbishment or a new fitout before you commit to a lease. We price projects up front, so you can compare staying and moving on real numbers instead of rough estimates.

Do this before you brief a commercial property agent or sign anything. The brief that goes to market, or the scope that goes to your current landlord, will then be based on what the business needs.

Making the Call on Office Fitout, Lease Terms and Timing

There's no universal answer, only the right one for your business at this point in its lease. Work through building services, capital cost against disruption, space needs, lease terms, incentives and presentation, ideally with a team that can deliver either option. That gives you a sounder basis than picking whichever option feels more familiar.

Start 6-12 months before the lease expires, and earlier for a larger tenancy. Check the date by which your lease says you must exercise any renewal option, as it's often six to nine months before expiry. Both paths need time for design, documentation and construction, and a fitout over 500m² can take 12 weeks or more on site alone.

Frequently asked questions