Office price per desk in 2026: the real price ranges

"How much does an office cost?" The right unit is no longer the square metre but the price per desk per month: that's how the entire flexible market prices its space.

Most of the figures doing the rounds on this subject are estimates. This one isn't: we measured 477 spaces that are actually available, arrondissement by arrondissement, and we publish our method alongside the results.

The median price of a desk in Paris is €610 excl. VAT per month, with half of all listings between €500 and €713.

👉 See available offices and their prices

Observed prices in Paris, arrondissement by arrondissement

Survey of 21 September 2026, covering the spaces in our catalogue with a listed price. n = number of spaces included. P25 and P75 mark out the middle half of listings: a quarter cost less than P25, a quarter cost more than P75.

What this table doesn't tell you, and what matters more. Medians range from €495 (11th) to €690 (8th), a ratio of 1 to 1.4. But comparing medians badly understates what is actually within reach: the Paris market runs from under €200 to over €870 per desk.

Per desk, moving from the 8th to the 11th saves about €195 a month, or €35,000 a year for a team of 15. Location weighs heavily, and moving slightly away from your dream address is often what brings a project within budget.

The paradox of the sought-after arrondissements

In absolute terms, the 8th has more listings under €450 than the 11th. A sought-after arrondissement concentrates far more listings, and therefore more affordable ones too, even if they are proportionally rare there.

Some operators there offer leaner set-ups, with fewer common areas and shared services but efficient spaces, at much lower prices. Symphony, in the 8th, comes in at around €400 per desk.

Ruling out an expensive arrondissement from the outset on the strength of its median is a mistake.

The missing arrondissements haven't been forgotten. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, 18th, 19th and 20th each have fewer than ten spaces with a listed price in our catalogue. We don't publish a median based on five listings: that would be a statistical accident, not market data.

The counter-intuitive figure: coworking costs more than a managed office

A desk in a coworking space costs around €50 a month more than a desk in a managed office, roughly 9% more. That's the opposite of the received wisdom.

The explanation lies in what you're buying. In coworking, you pay for a desk in a shared, service-heavy space: reception, shared meeting rooms, coffee, events, community. All of that has a cost, and it's spread across every desk sold.

With a managed office, you take a whole office floor. The circulation space, the meeting room and the kitchen are yours, and their cost is spread across all your desks. The bigger the team, the further that cost is spread.

So coworking is cheaper to get into, not per desk. It lets you take three desks when you're a team of three: a three-desk managed office simply doesn't exist. But once you go beyond a dozen people, the logic flips.

We look at this threshold effect in detail in our comparison coworking or managed office: which really costs less.

And sublets, at €407

It's the cheapest format of all: a third less than a managed office. A company with too much space lets it go at cost, or close to it, with no profit motive.

But the spread is huge, from €250 to €700 for the middle half of listings. "Sublet" covers very different situations: raw square metres in a shared open-plan area, or a fully equipped, self-contained office floor. This is the format where you most need to look at what's behind the price.

Outside Paris: what we can measure, and what we can't

Lyon comes in at €436, 28% below the Paris median. The ballpark often quoted for France's big regional cities, 20 to 40% below Paris, is borne out by our data.

La Défense, at €503, is the most useful figure in this table: a top-tier business address 27% below the Paris median, and €187 below the 8th. For a company that cares more about image and transport links than about an address within Paris proper, it's a trade-off that is rarely put into numbers.

These two locations are right on the publication threshold, with ten observations each. Treat them as ballpark figures, not benchmarks. Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille and Toulouse are still below the threshold: we'll publish them once they reach it.

How a price per desk is built up

A proper price per desk bundles everything: a share of the rent, service charges, internet, cleaning, furniture, maintenance, and access to common areas and meeting rooms. That's its strength: a single budget line, comparable from one listing to the next.

Three rules for a fair comparison:

• Same scope. Check that meeting rooms, coffee and extras (parking, storage, printing) are treated the same way in both quotes.
• Same density. A desk in 6 m² is not a desk in 10 m². Ask for the private floor area per desk: it's the quietest variable, and the most decisive.
• Same commitment. A price quoted for a fixed 36-month term isn't comparable with one you can cancel on 3 months' notice. Flexibility comes at a price, and rightly so.

To build the full budget, beyond the desk itself, see our desk-by-desk costing for a team of 20.

What pushes the price up or down

The neighbourhood, but less than you'd think

It's the first factor, and our data confirms it: a €195 gap in median price between the 8th and the 11th. But the gap within an arrondissement is often wider than the gap between two arrondissements.

The 16th is a case in point: P25 at €429, P75 at €871. More than a twofold difference within a single arrondissement. Two markets coexist there: prestige buildings around Trocadéro, and far more affordable listings towards Auteuil or Porte de Saint-Cloud.

In other words: finding the right neighbourhood saves you less than finding the right building in the neighbourhood you wanted.

Building quality and amenities

Rooftop, concierge, gym, a new certified building: each step up the range adds 10 to 30% per desk. The question isn't "is it nice?" but "will my team actually use it?" A gym used by two people out of thirty is a cost line, not a perk.

Team size and term

The bigger the team and the longer the commitment, the more room there is to negotiate the unit price. From around fifteen desks and 24 months, discounts of 10 to 20% on the listed price are common. The levers are set out in our guide negotiating your flexible office.

Timing

A building that's just opened, a floor that has been empty for months: operators adjust. Some deals are never advertised.

Three traps that skew comparisons

1. The "from" price. It often applies to the worst-placed desk in the building: the one with no window, in the basement, or in the least popular wing. Ask for the price of the space you actually viewed.
2. Entry fees. Some quotes leave out admin, set-up or reinstatement fees. Insist on two figures: the total cost of the first month, and the recurring monthly cost.
3. The phantom desk. A "20-desk" space sometimes counts seats in the meeting room or the breakout area. Count the real workstations, with a chair and a screen.

Before any viewing, our list of 15 questions to ask covers most of these blind spots.

Our methodology

We publish our method because a price without a method is just an assertion.

• Source. Offices listed by Desk to Desk with a published price per desk, as at 21 September 2026. 477 usable spaces out of 900 listings.
• Medians, never averages. With prices per desk, the average is pulled upwards by a handful of prestige floors and gives a poor picture of what someone searching will actually come across.
• Outliers trimmed. Values outside the interval [P25 − 1.5 × IQR; P75 + 1.5 × IQR] are excluded before calculation.
• Publication threshold. No breakdown covering fewer than ten spaces is published.
• One observation = one space, not one desk. A space is a site run by an operator: it may have anything from a few desks to several hundred, and it carries the same weight in the median as an 8-desk space.

What these figures don't tell you

• Prices are listed for only 53% of our catalogue. Offices without a public price are probably at the upper end, as price-on-request properties tend to be. The real market is probably a little more expensive than what we publish.
• It's a listed price, not a signed one. Before negotiation.
• It's our catalogue, not the whole market. In Paris, our coverage leans clearly towards the Rive Droite (Right Bank), which reflects our catalogue rather than the market.
• First survey. No measurable trend until the next one. We update the data monthly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average office price per desk in Paris?

We don't publish an average, because it's misleading in this market. The median is €610 excl. VAT per desk per month, based on 349 Paris offices in September 2026. Half of all listings fall between €500 and €713.

Is coworking cheaper than a managed office?

No, not per desk. The coworking median is €652 and the managed office median €600: around €50 more per desk per month. Coworking is cheaper to get into, because you can take just a few desks, but the unit cost is higher.

Which is the cheapest arrondissement for office space in Paris?

Among those where our sample is large enough, the 11th, with a median of €495. The most expensive is the 8th, at €690. The difference between the two is around €195 per desk per month.

How much does an office cost per desk in Lyon?

A median of €436, around 28% below Paris. The sample is ten spaces: treat it as a ballpark figure.

Does this price include service charges?

Yes. A price per desk for a flexible office bundles rent, service charges, internet, cleaning, furniture and access to common areas. That's what makes it comparable from one listing to the next, provided you check that the scope is identical.

How often is this data updated?

Monthly. Each survey applies exactly the same method, so that changes over time can be compared.

Search on your own, or use a broker

This data lets you search on your own. But part of the market isn't public: one-off discounts, floors not yet vacated, commercial trade-offs. No catalogue, ours included, shows everything.

To uncover off-market or lower-priced offers, working with a broker is generally the simplest route.

• It's free for you: the commission is paid by the operator or the landlord.
• They know the market and the operators, the negotiation levers and the real margins.
• They put competing offers head to head to strengthen your hand in the negotiation.
• They gather and sift the offers. No more dozens of email threads, chasing spaces that never reply, or fifteen rounds of viewings. Your search becomes much simpler.

See real prices, listing by listing

These medians set the framework. Your budget will depend on your neighbourhood, your density and the length of your commitment.

👉 Browse available offices and their prices: filter by arrondissement, number of desks and budget.

👉 Let us find your office: we get operators competing for your brief, and we see the deals that are never advertised.

Article written by Augustin Le Nénaon, co-founder of Desk to Desk. Data collected on 21 September 2026 from the Desk to Desk catalogue.