How much does an office move cost in Belgium? Benchmarks to guide you

You need to put a figure on your office move, and you quickly hit the same wall: from one provider to the next, the amounts quoted vary by a factor of two. In those conditions it is hard to tell whether a quote is reasonable — or to defend a budget internally.

That is normal: a business move has no catalogue price. It depends on a few concrete factors, which this article sets out, with ranges to place yourself and a method to get a reliable figure for your case.

There is no single price, only a range you can frame.

Why there is no single price

Two companies of the same size can pay two or three times as much as each other. The cost mainly depends on five variables:

  • the volume to move (furniture, workstations, archives, stock);
  • the distance between the old and the new site;
  • access conditions: floors, lift, corridor width, parking for the lorry;
  • the IT equipment to unplug, transport and put back into service;
  • the timing: an evening, weekend or public-holiday move costs more.

A serious quote always starts from these elements. A price given without a visit or an inventory therefore means little.

The main cost items

To read a quote, it helps to know what it contains. An office move usually breaks down as follows:

  • labour: the moving crew, often the largest item;
  • transport: lorries, fuel, the number of trips depending on distance;
  • packing and materials: boxes, protection, IT crates;
  • difficult access: a furniture hoist (the external lift that takes loads up the façade) is charged separately;
  • IT: disconnection, secure transport, reconnection;
  • insurance for furniture and equipment in transit;
  • out-of-hours surcharges: evening, weekend, public holiday.

These items do not all appear in a "lowest-price" quote. That is often where the gap between two offers opens up.

Ranges to place yourself

Here are orders of magnitude, to handle with care: they depend entirely on the factors above. They are there to place you, not to replace a quote.

  • A small office (a few workstations): often €1,500 to €5,000.
  • A floor or an SME (twenty to fifty workstations): often €5,000 to €20,000.
  • A head office or large organisation (beyond that): €20,000 to over €100,000.

Another common way to reason is to estimate a cost per workstation. It is useful for a first approach, but access, IT and weekend work can move that figure sharply.

These amounts are indicative benchmarks, to be confirmed by a quote after a technical visit.

The costs people forget

Transport is only part of the real bill. Several expenses often slip under the radar when the budget is drawn up:

  • reinstating the old site (painting, repairs, removing fit-out), often required by the lease;
  • decommissioning: dismantling and clearing out whatever does not follow;
  • new or adapted furniture for the new premises;
  • unforeseen costs on the day (blocked access, extra equipment, extra hours).

Anticipating them avoids nasty surprises. We cover this in a dedicated article (see "Read also").

The invisible cost: internal time

One item appears on no quote: the hours your team spends preparing, coordinating and following the project. Someone has to frame the need, compare the offers, be present on the day. That time has a value, especially when it is added to an already busy role.

It is a decision criterion in itself: handling it in-house costs less in direct euros but takes up time; delegating costs more but frees up your teams.

How to get a reliable figure for your case

Ranges place you; they do not replace an estimate. To get close to your actual cost:

  1. make a clear inventory of what moves, goes to storage or is thrown out;
  2. use our calculator to get an indicative estimate in a few minutes;
  3. ask for three quotes on the same assumptions (same volume, same date, same services), so that they are comparable.

If you would rather not steer all this yourself, a specialist agency can take on the framing, the comparison and the coordination — an option to weigh against the internal time mentioned above.

In short

An office move has no single price: it is framed. Use the ranges to place yourself, the calculator for a first estimate, and three comparable quotes to decide with confidence.