Business rates for offices: key facts
- Offices are usually valued by rental comparison: a price per m² from local rents, multiplied by the floor area.
- Offices are measured to net internal area (NIA), which leaves out toilets, stairwells, lift shafts, columns, internal structural walls and shared entrance halls.
- Offices are not retail, hospitality or leisure, so in England in 2026/27 they pay the 43.2p multiplier (RV under £51,000) or 48p (RV £51,000 to £499,999); 50.8p from £500,000.
- Air conditioning (including comfort cooling), heating, sprinklers, CCTV, raised floors and lifts can all affect the value.
- If your floors are separated by another occupier or by communal areas, they are usually assessed separately; parking for upper-floor offices is normally assessed separately too.
- You can check and challenge your office rateable value free through your business rates valuation account, or a rating surveyor can do it for you.
How is an office's rateable value worked out?
The VOA usually values offices using the rental comparison method. It gathers rents paid for your office and similar offices nearby, works out a price per square metre, and multiplies that by your floor area to get the rateable value.
Your rateable value (RV) is the VOA's estimate of the yearly open-market rent for your office on 1 April 2024, the valuation date for the list that took effect on 1 April 2026. It assumes the office is empty, in reasonable repair, and the tenant pays repairs, insurance and rates.
The VOA groups similar offices into a local valuation scheme and sets prices per m² for it. In outline:
- Collect rents from office lettings in the area, including your own if you rent.
- Adjust them so they are comparable (for example, spreading out the cost of rent-free periods).
- Set a price per m² for offices of a similar type, age and location.
- Multiply by your measured floor area, then add or adjust for things like plant, parking or a poor layout.
Your summary valuation on GOV.UK shows the areas, prices per m² and extra items used.
What does net internal area include for an office?
Net internal area is the usable floor space inside your office. It leaves out shared entrance halls, toilets, stairwells, lift shafts, columns, internal structural walls and cleaners' rooms, but ignores non-structural partitions, so partitioned rooms still count.
Offices are usually measured to net internal area (NIA). For an office occupier, the practical points are:
- Left out: shared entrance halls and reception areas used by several tenants, toilets, stairwells, lift shafts, columns, internal structural walls and cleaners' cupboards.
- Counted: the open-plan office floor, meeting rooms, private offices and kitchens within your demise. Non-structural partition walls are ignored when measuring, so carving up a floor into rooms does not reduce the area.
- Floor levels: the floor at street level is the ground floor; check each floor is labelled correctly.
How does the VOA use office rents?
The VOA does not just take the headline rent. It considers rent-free periods, improvements made by the tenant, fit-out costs and unusual lease terms, and adjusts rents so they can be compared on the same basis.
A headline office rent can look higher than the deal really was. The VOA considers:
- Rent-free periods: the tenant really paid less than the headline rent.
- Tenant improvements: work you paid for may be relevant to how your rent compares.
- Fit-out costs: whether the office was let as a shell, with a basic finish or fully fitted makes a difference to the rent.
- Unusual lease terms: such as rents agreed between connected parties, may not reflect the open market.
If you challenge, you must give rent details including any rent-free periods, so keep your lease, side letters and rent review dates together.
Do air conditioning, lifts and raised floors affect office business rates?
Yes, they can. The VOA records air conditioning, heating, sprinklers, CCTV, raised floors and passenger lifts, and plant may be shown separately in the valuation, so the specification it holds should match what your office actually has.
The VOA's office guidance asks you to confirm:
| Item | What the VOA wants to know |
|---|---|
| Air conditioning | Whether it covers the whole office or only part, and which areas. Comfort cooling must be declared as air conditioning, with the system specification and the areas it covers. |
| Heating | Whether the office is fully or partly heated, and which areas. Free-standing plug-in heaters do not need to be declared. |
| Sprinklers | Whether they cover the whole or part of the property. Stand-alone fire extinguishers do not count. |
| CCTV | Number of cameras, colour or black and white, and date of installation. |
| Raised floors | Which areas have raised floors for cabling. |
| Passenger lifts | Whether a lift serves your floors, even through a shared lobby, and which floors. |
Getting these right matters both ways. If the VOA thinks your whole floor is air-conditioned but only the server room has cooling, your value may be too high. If you have added air conditioning since, the value may go up when the VOA finds out.
Do multiple floors in an office building get one rateable value or several?
If the floors or suites you occupy touch each other, side by side or directly above or below, they are usually one property with one rateable value. If they are separated by another occupier or by communal lifts, stairwells or hallways, they are usually assessed separately.
In England, parts of a building that touch and are used for similar purposes are treated as one property, and Wales has applied the same rules since 1 April 2023. For offices this means:
- You occupy the first and second floors: usually one rateable value.
- You occupy the first and third floors, with someone else on the second: usually two rateable values.
- You have two suites on the same floor either side of a shared corridor or lift lobby: usually two rateable values.
One RV or several can change your bill:
- Small business rate relief (SBRR): SBRR is usually only for businesses with one property. Two separate assessments can count as two properties, and after any grace period you may keep relief on your main property only if your other properties each have an RV of £2,899 or less and your total RV is under £20,000 (£28,000 in London) in 2026/27.
- Multiplier: each assessment is tested against the £51,000 threshold separately, so one combined RV and two smaller RVs may fall on different multipliers.
If your assessments do not match how you occupy the building, a challenge can ask for them to be split or merged.
Is office car parking charged business rates?
Usually, yes. Car parking may be shown separately in your office valuation, included in the price per m², or given its own rateable value. If your office is on the first floor or above and you have parking spaces, they are normally assessed separately.
Check your summary valuation and any separate entries for your address. Look for:
- The number of spaces matches your lease, not the total for the building.
- Spaces you have given up or that have been built on are no longer included. The VOA asks what happened to the area, with plans or photos, and if you rent and do not know, your landlord's details.
- Parking is not counted twice, once in your office valuation and again as a separate assessment.
Separately assessed parking needs its own check if anything about it is wrong.
Who pays business rates in a serviced office or coworking space?
It depends on control. The VOA values a serviced office building either as a single assessment or as multiple properties, depending on whether the unit holder is in possession of their space or the operator remains in control.
If you take a desk or room in a serviced office or coworking space, you may not get a bill of your own. Where the operator keeps control, it is usually the ratepayer and the cost is in your fee. Where you are in possession of your own suite, it may be assessed separately and billed to you.
For operators, how agreements, access and services work in practice decides whether there is one assessment or many. If your suite has its own assessment, check whether small business rate relief applies.
How much are business rates on an office? A worked example
Multiply the rateable value by the multiplier, then take off reliefs. Offices are not retail, hospitality or leisure, so in England in 2026/27 an office with an RV of £80,000 pays 48p: £80,000 × 0.48 = £38,400 a year before any reliefs.
Here is an illustrative office calculation using the 2026/27 England multipliers. The price per m² is a made-up figure for the example, not a real rate for any area.
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Net internal area | 400 m² |
| Price per m² (example) | £200 |
| Rateable value | 400 × £200 = £80,000 |
| Multiplier (RV £51,000 to £499,999, not RHL) | 48p |
| Bill before reliefs | £80,000 × 0.48 = £38,400 |
A smaller office with an RV of £40,000 would be on the small business multiplier: £40,000 × 0.432 = £17,280. If the VOA had measured 380 m² instead of 400 m², the first RV would be £76,000 and the bill £36,480.
Offices do not get the lower retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers (38.2p and 43p). Your bill may be reduced by transitional relief or supporting small business relief if it rose at the 2026 revaluation.
2027/28: at the Budget on 28 October 2026 the government announced multipliers due from 1 April 2027 of 44.7p (small business) and 49.7p (standard), subject to regulations. On the same £80,000 office that would be £80,000 × 0.497 = £39,760 before reliefs.
Wales: offices in Wales pay the standard multiplier of 0.502 in 2026/27, or the higher multiplier of 0.515 where the RV is above £100,000. So an £80,000 office in Wales would be £80,000 × 0.502 = £40,160 before reliefs. Small business rates relief in Wales covers RVs up to £12,000 (full relief up to £6,000).
Do you pay business rates on an empty office?
In England an empty office is usually free of business rates for 3 months from when it becomes empty, then full rates are charged. The extra 3 months given to industrial premises does not apply to offices.
Listed buildings and properties with an RV under £2,900 can stay relieved until reoccupied. Wales also gives 3 months' exemption, and from 1 April 2026 you must tell the council within 60 days when a property becomes empty or occupied, or you could face a £500 penalty.
Changing how you use space: if you use part of your office as storage, the VOA will still value it as office space unless you make physical alterations, such as to the quality of the finish. Send photos with your check.
When is it worth challenging an office rateable value?
It may be worth checking your office valuation if the floor area, specification or parking looks wrong, if similar offices nearby have lower values, if your floors have been split or merged wrongly, or if something outside your control, such as major building works next door, is affecting the property.
Reasons office occupiers commonly look again at their valuation include:
- Measurement errors: shared areas, toilets or columns included in the NIA, or a floor you do not occupy.
- Wrong specification: air conditioning, raised floors, a lift or sprinklers recorded that you do not have, or recorded for the whole floor when they serve only part.
- Comparables: similar offices nearby valued at a lower price per m².
- Assessment errors: suites assessed together that should be separate, or the other way round, or parking counted twice.
- Material change of circumstances: things outside the property that affect its value, such as the reconstruction or demolition of a neighbouring building or long-term disruptive roadworks. If the issue is temporary, you need to report it while it is still happening.
The process is Check, then Challenge, then Appeal. You start with a check in your business rates valuation account, which is free. You must make a check before you can challenge, and a challenge generally has to be made within 4 months of the check decision. A challenge needs your reasons, evidence, a proposed rateable value and rent details. The value can go up, down or stay the same.
You can do all of this yourself. Some occupiers use a rating surveyor instead to save time and because surveyors know local office rents, comparable valuations, the evidence the VOA expects and the deadlines. Fees are agreed directly with the surveyor.
Related guides
Business rates for offices: frequently asked questions
How are business rates for offices calculated?
The VOA sets a rateable value by working out a price per square metre from local office rents and multiplying it by your net internal area, Your council multiplies that by the multiplier and takes off any reliefs.
What multiplier do offices pay in England?
Offices are not retail, hospitality or leisure properties, so they pay the ordinary multipliers. In 2026/27 that is 43.2p if the rateable value is under £51,000, 48p from £51,000 to £499,999, and 50.8p from £500,000.
Do I pay business rates on my office car parking spaces?
Usually. Parking may be included in your office valuation or given its own rateable value. If your office is on the first floor or above, parking spaces are normally assessed separately.
I rent two floors in the same building. Will I get two bills?
If the floors are next to each other, one directly above the other, they are usually one property. If another occupier's floor or a shared lift lobby or corridor separates them, they are usually assessed separately.
Do I pay business rates in a serviced office?
Not always. If the operator stays in control of the building and the space, the operator is usually the ratepayer and rates are built into your fee. If you have exclusive possession of your own suite, it may be assessed separately and you could get your own bill.
How long is an empty office free of business rates?
In England, usually 3 months from when it becomes empty, after which full rates are normally charged. The extra 3 months for industrial premises does not apply to offices.
What will office business rates be in 2027/28?
At the Budget on 28 October 2026 the government announced multipliers for England due from 1 April 2027 of 44.7p for properties with a rateable value under £51,000 and 49.7p for £51,000 to £499,999, subject to regulations.
Are office business rates different in Wales?
Yes. In 2026/27 offices in Wales pay the standard multiplier of 0.502, or 0.515 if the rateable value is above £100,000. Small business rates relief in Wales tapers to nothing at £12,000.
Can I challenge my office rateable value myself?
Yes. You can check and challenge free through your business rates valuation account on GOV.UK. You make a check first, then a challenge within the time limits. A rating surveyor can do it for you if you prefer, with fees agreed directly with them.
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these official sources on 10 November 2026: