What Is Rentable Square Footage? The Number Your Rent Is Charged On
Rentable square footage is the area an office lease charges rent on: the floor you occupy plus your portion of the building's shared areas, such as the lobby, the elevator core and mechanical rooms. It is always larger than the usable area inside your walls. A quote such as $75 per SF per year means $75 for every rentable square foot, every year. Multiply the rate by the rentable footage for the annual figure, then divide by twelve for the month. That is base rent only; electricity and yearly escalations are billed on top.
Rather have a broker answer it for your team?Tell us team size and timing. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.
Send me floors in this bandUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
How rentable square footage is calculated
Start with usable area, the space inside your own walls that takes desks and rooms. Add your portion of what the building needs in order to function: the lobby, mechanical rooms, the elevator core and, where a floor has several tenants, the corridor and restrooms they share. The total is the rentable figure, so yes, common areas are included by design.
The landlord does the measuring, and no New York statute sets the method, so two similar floors can carry different rentable totals. Whatever figure is written into the lease governs.
From $75 per SF per year to a monthly rent
Take the searcher's own figure and a floor of 4,000 rentable square feet.
- Annual: in this example, 4,000 times $75 comes to $300,000.
- Monthly: $300,000 divided by twelve is $25,000.
- Per head: the floor suits about 23 people at the 175 square foot planning figure, so roughly $1,090 each per month.
The shortcut is to divide the rate by twelve first: in this example $75 a year is $6.25 a month for each rentable foot. Rent is quoted by the month in some markets, so check the unit first when a quote comes from outside New York. Rent per square foot runs the same sum against current listings.
Load factor, loss factor and a good number for a New York office
Both measure the distance from the area you pay for to the area you can furnish. Loss factor is the share of the rentable area you cannot occupy. Load factor divides rentable by usable: multiply your usable area by it and you get the billed area. A 20 percent loss factor and a 1.25 load factor are the same floor described two ways.
In New York, usable area typically runs 15 to 25 percent below rentable, a load factor between roughly 1.18 and 1.33. In both forms a smaller number is better. The loss factor entry has the conversions.
What a broker working for the tenant checks in the measurement
The party that measures the floor is the party that charges for it, so the checking falls to your side. A broker on your search does four things with the rentable figure:
- Asks for the loss factor in writing, along with how the floor was measured, before any terms are exchanged.
- Orders a test fit, so the usable area is drawn by an architect and not assumed.
- Restates every competing floor as cost per usable foot, the only basis on which two quotes compare.
- Reads the lease for a right to remeasure, and pushes for a footage that stays fixed through the term.
On your search, we work for you. What our brokerage covers sets out the rest, and the floors below sit in the price band the example on this page comes from.
Floors asking $75 to $100 per square foot
Live from our listings · 6 of the 11, cheapest first11 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $75 to $100 per square foot per year, from 2,940 to 13,266 square feet.
- Floors
- 11
- Sizes
- 2,940-13,266 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $78-$98 / sq ft
- 17 State Street, Partial 26th Floor 6,606 sq ft $79/sq ft FiDi about 38 people
- 540 Broadway, Entire 2nd Floor 6,350 sq ft $85/sq ft SoHo about 36 people
- 825 Third Avenue, Partial 29th Floor 5,230 sq ft $89/sq ft Grand Central about 30 people
- 900 Broadway, Partial 9th Floor 2,940 sq ft $92/sq ft Flatiron about 17 people
- 1450 Broadway, Entire 40th Floor 4,109 sq ft $95/sq ft Bryant Park about 23 people
- 50 Greene Street, 3rd Floor 7,300 sq ft $98/sq ft SoHo about 70 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Rentable vs Usable Square Footage: What to Ask Before Comparing Two Floors
- Commercial Lease Assignment: Handing Your Office Lease to Another Company
- Tenant Exit Strategies: Six Ways Out of an Office Lease, Compared
- Commercial Lease Dispute Resolution: A Disagreement With Your Landlord, in Order
Do I pay rent on the lobby and the elevators?
In effect, yes. Your rentable square footage includes part of the lobby, the elevator core and mechanical space, and where several tenants share a floor, part of the corridor and restrooms as well. None of it is billed separately. It is folded into the footage your rate is multiplied by.
Can the rentable figure change after the lease is signed?
Only where the lease permits it. A remeasurement right lets the landlord restate the footage, typically at a renewal or when you take more space, and the rent then rises although no wall has moved. Ask your attorney to confirm that the footage is fixed for the term.
What does the monthly figure from this arithmetic leave out?
Everything billed on top of base rent. Electricity typically adds $2 to $4 a square foot each year, base rent usually rises about 2.5 to 3 percent annually, and the lease calls for a deposit or a letter of credit when you sign. The full cost guide adds each of them up.
Is a 25 percent loss factor a reason to walk away?
Not on its own. It is a reason to price the floor down, because fewer of the feet you pay for hold desks. Compare on cost per usable foot, and the heavy floor either earns its place or drops off the shortlist.
Talk to a broker
Want this answered for your team?
Tell us three things: team size, timing, budget. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the asking rent on every floor that publishes one.
- Within the houra broker reaches out during business hours, no automated triage
- On your sidewe work for you on your search, and the landlord usually pays our fee
- Open pricingasking rent published for 46 of 49 floors, size and address for all
- 300+ officesdelivered in New York, 2M+ sq ft leased
Or call 646-688-3158
