How accurate is the office fit-out cost calculator?

It gives a preliminary budget range based on your office size, condition, layout, finish level and selected services. It is an early planning estimate, not a formal quotation — final costs are confirmed after a site assessment.

Is the calculator free to use?

Yes. The calculator is completely free and there is no obligation. You provide your project details and contact information and receive an instant estimated budget range.

What does the estimate include?

The range covers construction and fit-out works for the scope you select — finishes, internal layout, and any additional services chosen. Furniture is included only if you select it. Prices exclude VAT.

Does the estimate include VAT?

No. All figures are shown excluding VAT.

What happens after I get my estimate?

Your details are sent to the First Gate team and we respond quickly — typically the same business day — to discuss your project and arrange a site assessment for an accurate quotation.

Which areas does First Gate cover?

First Gate delivers office fit-out, refurbishment and relocation projects across Cape Town and surrounding areas.

We're weighing Claremont against the CBD — can you help us compare?

Yes, and before the design starts. The choice between premises sits upstream of everything else, so a First Gate engagement can open with test fits: two or three space-plan options per floor that show how each building actually performs against your headcount, meeting-room demand and growth plans.

How long does a southern suburbs office fit-out take?

For an office between 200 and 1,000 m², the design phase runs four to eight weeks: brief, space plan, concept, 3D renders and technical drawings. The build is programmed from there. Where a council submission is required, it's scoped upfront — compliance is handled in-house.

What does an office fit-out in Claremont or Newlands cost?

Most of our commercial work sits between R500,000 and R5 million in total project value, priced on a per-m² rate against one of four quality tiers, excluding VAT. The Office Cost Calculator on this site gives you a starting figure for your floor in about two minutes.

Location · Western Cape

Office Fit-Out — Southern Suburbs

One team for the design, the build and the council paperwork, across the office blocks of Claremont, Newlands, Rondebosch and Kenilworth. Free initial assessment — and a fixed-scope price within two business days.

Calculate your budget

Scope

What a southern suburbs office fit-out covers

Three workstreams in every project: the drawings, the build, and the City of Cape Town paperwork. In stock this varied in age, the third is rarely a formality.

01
Design
Space planning drawn from how the firm really operates, concept and finish direction, lighting, branded reception environments, and the technical drawings the build is priced and programmed from.
02
Construction
The construction programme itself: trades coordinated, the site managed around tenants still in occupation where needed, sub-contractor management, quality control and snagging.
03
Compliance
The City of Cape Town file: building plans, the occupancy certificate, fire and electrical sign-offs — and on floors that have traded through several tenancies, the legacy gaps a new tenant inherits unless someone closes them.

15+

Years in Cape Town

40+

Municipal submissions since 2016

Level 1

BEE Contributor

Business days to a fixed-scope price

Process

How a southern suburbs fit-out runs

01
Step 01
Measured survey + working session
A surveyed base drawing of the floor you hold — or each floor you're considering — and a session on how the firm operates: headcount now and where it's heading, the focus-to-collaboration split, what clients will see, and how the hybrid week lands.
02
Step 02
Space plan options
Layouts for each floor, built to be compared side by side. When the decision is Claremont or the CBD — or one block against another — the drawings settle it while the lease is still unsigned.
03
Step 03
Concept, 3D and technical drawings
Materials, finishes and lighting resolved and visualised in 3D ahead of long-lead procurement, then documented to the standard a contractor prices from and the City approves.
04
Step 04
Build to occupancy certificate
From site establishment to handover, one project lead owns the construction, the compliance file and the occupancy certificate application.

Scope

Where First Gate fits in the southern suburbs — and where it doesn't.

When it fits

When First Gate is the right fit in the southern suburbs

Professional firms between 200 and 2,000 m² — wealth managers, legal practices, consultancies and corporate teams of 30 to 400 staff.
Premises-comparison engagements: space plans for the floors you're shortlisting, before any lease is signed.
Landlord work: getting a building ready for its next tenant, or proving what vacant space can do with a test fit.

When it doesn't

You want a decorative refresh only
When the floor plan stays and the council never needs to know — paint, finishes, furniture — a smaller decorator is the sensible appointment. First Gate is scoped for work that alters the architecture.
Formally listed heritage buildings
A formally listed building calls for a specialist heritage architect to direct the conservation work. We support those appointments rather than lead them.

Sounds like your project? Get an estimate →

The southern suburbs are Cape Town's professional-services heartland, anchored by Claremont — one of the city's largest office nodes outside the CBD. Wealth managers, legal practices and consultancies choose the area for its talent catchment, its transport links and a working day that doesn't start on the N1. The stock they occupy spans four decades: newer A-grade space beside older blocks being repositioned. Two floors a kilometre apart can be entirely different projects — and here the building's age, not its address, is what sets the budget.

Design, build and refurbishment in the southern suburbs

The building you take decides the engagement you need — and in the southern suburbs, plenty of firms haven't taken one yet. Still choosing between premises? Space planning settles it with test fits: layout options drawn on each candidate floor, so the comparison is made on evidence rather than viewings. A vacant A-grade floor ready for a complete workspace calls for design and build — space plan, technical drawings and construction running in sequence to the occupancy certificate. And a floor in an older block with good bones is the natural brief for office refurbishment: services, layout and finishes lifted to current standard without the cost and disruption of a move.

Before the lease conversation gets serious, put a number on the floor. Two minutes in the Office Cost Calculator — square meterage in, quality tier chosen — gives you a realistic figure to negotiate around.

Why First Gate

Why First Gate in the southern suburbs

Three credentials decide most appointments in a market this established: delivery model, council track record, and procurement standing.

01 / Single-team delivery

Design, build and compliance on one contract

From measured survey to handover, nothing changes hands midstream. The space plan is drawn against what the build will cost, and the council submission is prepared by the people who made the design decisions it documents.

02 / Council fluency

40+ municipal submissions since 2016

SACAP-registered, with enough City of Cape Town submissions behind us to know what its plan examiners question and what makes an occupancy certificate application move. On older stock, that experience is the difference between a programmed timeline and an open-ended one.

03 / Procurement-ready

Level 1 BEE Contributor

Verified. Where procurement preference scoring shapes the appointment — corporate tenancies, landlord-side work — the rating carries real weight in adjudication.

Selected Work

Recent First Gate fit-outs

First Gate's completed Cape Town work. Click any project to view the full gallery.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

: Yes, and before the design starts. The choice between premises sits upstream of everything else, so a First Gate engagement can open with test fits: two or three space-plan options per floor that show how each building actually performs against your headcount, meeting-room demand and growth plans.
: For an office between 200 and 1,000 m², the design phase runs four to eight weeks: brief, space plan, concept, 3D renders and technical drawings. The build is programmed from there. Where a council submission is required, it's scoped upfront — compliance is handled in-house.
: Most of our commercial work sits between R500,000 and R5 million in total project value, priced on a per-m² rate against one of four quality tiers, excluding VAT. The Office Cost Calculator on this site gives you a starting figure for your floor in about two minutes.

Get an instant estimate

Price your fit-out in two minutes.

Tell us the space, the headcount and your timeline. Get an on-screen budget range instantly — no phone call, no obligation.

Instant on-screen estimateNo obligation

Calculate your budget

Office Fit-Out — Southern Suburbs

What a southern suburbs office fit-out covers

How a southern suburbs fit-out runs

Measured survey + working session

Space plan options

Concept, 3D and technical drawings

Build to occupancy certificate