The amount paid by companies in Europe for one full-time employee working in an office for a year has fallen by 1% to €9,695 on average. In the Netherlands, this cost has risen by 1% to €9,469, but this remains below the European average. This is one of the findings of the Occupier Cost Index, which is based on data from 29 countries, 4,050 buildings, 26.3 million square meters of office space and 1.96 million employees (FTE).
The slight increase in costs in the Netherlands was mainly due to investments in IT and higher spending on facility management. “There is an increasing focus on technology, quality and sustainable purchasing”, explains Denise Hoogendoorn, head of FM Consultancy at Colliers. “Because people are increasingly working remotely, costs associated with office space and facilities are actually decreasing. So overall, the increase was just 1%.”
Bulgaria is the cheapest country
Like last year, Bulgaria is by far the cheapest country in Europe in which to employ a full-time office worker. Bulgaria has the lowest rents and labour costs of any country, and businesses spend just €2,765 per year per office employee, on average. Croatia is the second least expensive country. There, companies spend €4,145 on office costs. Romania completes the top three cheapest countries, at €4,255.
Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe. Costs there remained the same as last year, but are very high at €18,407. That is almost seven times more expensive than Bulgaria. The other two most expensive countries are Norway and Sweden, which also feature regularly in the top three. There, office costs were €17,857 and €17,137 per full-time worker, respectively. That is almost twice as expensive as the Netherlands. “That’s mainly due to the relatively low rental costs in our country”, explains Hoogendoorn. “That puts the Netherlands in the middle bracket of European countries. Because rental costs make up a large part of the OCI, the Netherlands ranks 14th out of the 29 European countries surveyed.”
All office costs are compared using the European facility standard EN 15221 for the Occupier Cost Index. This standard is made up of four categories: buildings & infrastructure, people & organization, ICT, and management.
