Lease Office vs Work From Home Calculator
This calculator compares the annual cost of leasing an office against supporting your team to work from home, helping New Zealand businesses make the office decision on numbers rather than habit. The shift to remote and hybrid work has made this one of the most common cost questions for small and growing businesses, and the answer is rarely obvious because the two options have completely different cost structures. An office carries rent, outgoings such as power, internet, cleaning and body corporate or operating expenses, and often a fit-out, regardless of how many people use it. Working from home shifts the cost to per-employee support: a home-office stipend or allowance, a one-off equipment setup that can be spread over a few years, and sometimes a co-working budget for occasional in-person work. Which is cheaper depends heavily on team size, because office costs are largely fixed while home-working costs scale with headcount. This tool puts them side by side. You enter the office rent and outgoings, the annual home-office stipend per employee, the one-off home setup cost per employee, and the number of employees, and the calculator returns the annual cost of each option and the saving from the cheaper one. Use it to decide whether to sign or renew a lease, to size a remote-work budget, or to build the financial case for a hybrid model. Remember the numbers are only part of the picture; collaboration, culture, focus and staff preference matter too, and many businesses land on a hybrid that trades some office savings for the benefits of occasional togetherness. This is a cost comparison to inform that decision, not the whole of it.
Home setup is spread over 3 years. Ignores productivity, culture and collaboration value, which matter too. A cost comparison only.
How it works
The office annual cost adds rent and outgoings, which are largely fixed regardless of headcount. The work-from-home annual cost is the number of employees times the yearly stipend plus the one-off setup spread over three years. The cheaper option and the saving are the difference between the two.
Worked example
An office costing $18,000 rent plus $4,000 outgoings is $22,000 a year. Supporting 4 employees at home, with a $1,500 stipend and a $2,000 setup spread over 3 years, is about $2,167 each, or $8,668 a year. Working from home saves about $13,332 a year. With a much larger team, the office can become competitive because its cost is fixed.
Related calculators
- Home Office Setup: cost to kit out a desk.
- True Cost of an Employee: full employment cost.
- Buy vs Lease Premises: own or rent.
- Startup Cost: setting up.