£1,074 or £358? What a desk really costs in London

Quick one before you scroll. Guess what a single desk in a London office costs a month.

Got a number? Hold on to it.

The answer is £586 a month, excluding VAT. That's the median across 749 London buildings in our October 2026 Price Index. Go to Fitzrovia and the same desk is £1,074. Go to Canary Wharf and it's £358.

Yes, that means one Fitzrovia desk costs the same as three in Canary Wharf. 🤯

Never searched for an office before? Start here

Flexible offices don't price like a normal lease. Forget pounds per square foot. They quote per desk, per month.

That one price usually covers the lot: rent, business rates, bills, cleaning, wifi and furniture. Need 10 people in? You'll be quoted for 10 desks.

Simple. Except for one thing.

A desk isn't always a desk

Every operator decides how much room a "desk" gets. Some allow about 33 sq ft a desk. Others allow nearer 60 sq ft.

So a 10 desk office could be 330 sq ft in one building and 600 sq ft in the next. That's nearly twice the room for the same number of people.

The tip nobody gives you: when two quotes look alike, ask for the square footage. The cheaper desk is sometimes just the smaller one. The pricier desk can turn out to be the better deal.

The 10 most expensive areas in London

Median asking price a desk a month, excluding VAT. Spacebly Price Index, October 2026. "10 desks for a year" is a simple estimate: price × 10 × 12.

Five of the top 10 are in the West End. You pay for the postcode, the walk to the Tube and the lunch options.

A fun one: Mayfair and Marylebone share a W1 postcode. They sit £184 a desk a month apart. For 10 people, that's over £22,000 a year for crossing Oxford Street.

Where your money goes further

• Canary Wharf: £358. The best value in London by a distance.
• Whitechapel & Spitalfields: £494. Next door to the City for a lot less.
• Southwark & London Bridge and St Paul's & Fleet Street: £582. Both just under the London median.

Want all 17 areas on a map? See the full London Price Index.

Is my quote normal?

Here's a handy test. Half of London's desks sit between £385 and £807 a month. Land in that band and it's a normal London price. Well outside it? There's usually a reason, so ask what it is.

Your budget in 30 seconds

1. Pick two or three areas your team can get to easily.
2. Take the highest price of the three.
3. Multiply by your headcount, then by 12.

That's your first year number to take to whoever signs off the budget. Add VAT if your business can't claim it back.

Then we pay you 💸

Find your office through Spacebly and we pay you back up to 3% of your first year as an experience or vouchers, or 1.5% as cash. For 10 desks at the London median, that's about £2,110. £250 minimum. Terms apply.

How much would we pay you?

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Quick questions

How much does a desk cost in London? £586 a month at the median in October 2026, excluding VAT, across 749 buildings. Most desks sit between £385 and £807.

What's the most expensive area for office space in London? Fitzrovia, at £1,074 a desk a month. Mayfair (£858) and Paddington & Bayswater (£824) come next.

Where's the cheapest office space in central London? Canary Wharf, at £358 a desk a month, then Whitechapel & Spitalfields at £494.

How big is a desk in a flexible office? It depends on the operator. Most allow somewhere between about 33 and 60 sq ft a desk, so always ask for the total square footage.

Source: Spacebly Flexible Office Price Index, London, October 2026. Asking prices from operators' live listings, excluding VAT. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. How we calculate it.

Cover photo: Influence Media, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons