The cost of a workplace is rising while its use is not

Two numbers that move in opposite directions

The NFC Index, the Dutch facility cost benchmark produced with Colliers and Twynstra Gudde under the NEN 2748 standard, puts total facility cost at 637 euro per square metre of lettable floor area per year, an increase of 5.9 percent. Available square metres per FTE fell 16 percent over the same period. In the previous edition, office cleaning costs alone rose 17 percent.

Set that against JLL's Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2026, covering 84 organisations and 716 million square feet, which puts global office utilisation at 56 percent against a 74 percent target. You are paying a rising rate per square metre for space that is occupied slightly more than half the time.

The cost of a workplace has three layers

Rent and service charges, which are fixed to area and only change at a lease event.

Facility operations, meaning cleaning, catering, reception and maintenance. These are almost always contracted on full coverage rather than on measured demand, which is where the overspend hides.

Energy, where US Energy Information Administration data for office buildings puts space heating, cooling and ventilation at roughly 57 percent of total energy use. An ASHRAE funded study published in Science and Technology for the Built Environment modelled CO2 based demand controlled ventilation across four climate zones and found HVAC source energy savings of 9 to 33 percent while still meeting ASHRAE 62.1 requirements 96 to 98 percent of the time.

What iotspot changes

iotspot Insights gives occupancy by floor, zone and hour, so cleaning, catering and reception can be dispatched on real use instead of full coverage, and quiet floors can be closed with a single action. iotspot Smart Climate feeds CO2, temperature, humidity, VOC and pressure readings into your building systems so conditioning follows occupancy rather than a timetable. iotspot ESG Reporting turns the same record into auditable data for CSRD and EPBD obligations rather than an annual estimate.

Each of those becomes a line item with a measurement behind it rather than an assumption a supplier set years ago.

On reliability

The NFC Index is a member benchmark under a published standard, but the participant count is not disclosed publicly and it is Dutch market data, so treat it as directional rather than as your cost base. The ASHRAE range is simulation across four US climate zones, not a forecast for your building. Your own metered baseline is the only number finance will accept, and iotspot exists to produce it.

iotspot is ISO 27001 certified and 100 percent GDPR compliant, hosted on European cloud infrastructure with European hardware, storing no personal data.

Frequently asked questions about the cost of a workplace