Office fit-out in Cyprus, and the questions that come up first

Most office fit-out questions in Cyprus reduce to one: the vocabulary of the market is borrowed from London, and the buildings are not. Cat A and Cat B describe a landlord-and-tenant split that a small number of newer Limassol and Nicosia buildings genuinely follow and most of the island's office stock does not. Almost every disagreement about scope, cost and programme starts there.

The ten questions we get most

1. What is the difference between a Cat A and a Cat B fit-out?
2. Are offices in Cyprus actually let on a Cat A basis?
3. Who pays for which part, the landlord or the tenant?
4. What does a fit-out cost per square metre?
5. How long does it take from signing the lease to moving in?
6. Does the work need planning or building approval?
7. Is the existing electricity supply enough for the new headcount?
8. Can the existing air conditioning be reused if the layout changes?
9. What has to be put back at the end of the lease?
10. Is a full fit-out worth it on a short lease?

Short answers

Cat A and Cat B. Cat A is the landlord's work: the unit brought to a lettable, finished-but-empty state — raised floor or levelled screed, ceiling, lighting, base air conditioning, fire detection, and finished common lobbies and WCs. Cat B is the tenant's work: the layout, partitions, meeting rooms, tea point, data cabling, joinery, furniture and everything that makes the space belong to one occupier rather than any occupier.

Whether Cyprus works that way. In the newer high-rise office buildings, mostly in Limassol where rapid vertical development has produced institutional- grade stock, something close to Cat A is delivered and the terms mean what they mean elsewhere. Outside that, and particularly in converted 1970s to 1990s buildings, a "shell" handover can mean anything from a screed and a capped service stub to a fully ceilinged floor. The term on the heads of terms is not the specification.

Who pays. Whatever the schedule of condition and the specification annexed to the lease say, and nothing else. Where a landlord contributes, it is usually a capital contribution or a rent-free period rather than works carried out — which transfers both the cost risk and the programme risk to the tenant.

Cost per square metre. The construction baseline is the starting point, and fit-out sits on top of it according to the density of partitioning, the mechanical and electrical content and the specification of the loose items.

Programme. The build is rarely the long pole. Design, approvals, a possible supply application to the electricity authority and the shipping lead time on imported partitioning, glazing, lighting and furniture usually take longer than the works on site.

Approvals. A layout change that alters escape routes, compartmentation or the use of the unit is not a decorating job. It engages the planning and building authority and requires design and supervision by professionals registered with the technical chamber.

Electricity supply. The supply serving the unit was sized for whoever was there before. More workstations, more cooling and a server room can exceed it, and increasing the supply is an application with its own lead time rather than a line in the electrical subcontractor's price.

Air conditioning. Sometimes reused, often not. Air distribution is designed around a layout, so new partitions frequently leave one meeting room starved and one open area over-cooled, and fire detection zoning has to follow the new walls regardless.

End of lease. Reinstatement obligations are usually in the lease and rarely in the budget. What has to be stripped out and restored should be priced at the same time as what is being installed.

Short leases. The arithmetic is straightforward: the cost has to be recovered over the term that is actually secured, not the term hoped for. On a short term with no option, the case usually favours a lighter specification and more demountable partitioning.

Where the answer depends

Three variables move almost every answer above.

The first is the building. Nicosia's inland position gives the widest temperature range on the island, which drives insulation and shading specification, and an office floor with a west-facing glazed elevation in a building that predates any serious thermal standard will need either solar control or plant to compensate. The same floor plate behind a modern facade in a recent Limassol tower is a different mechanical problem and a different budget.

The second is what the landlord has actually delivered. It is worth walking the unit with the designer before the lease is signed rather than after, because the gap between the handover condition and the assumed Cat A standard is transferred straight into the tenant's budget. Ceiling void depth, floor-to-soffit height, riser position and where the incoming services terminate decide more about the cost than any design decision taken later.

The third is procurement route. A single main contractor carrying the trades is simpler to manage and prices the coordination risk into the number. Direct appointment of trades looks cheaper on the tender and moves the coordination onto the tenant's own team, which works where that team exists and fails where it does not.

What nobody asks but should

What happens to the space in year three? Headcount changes faster than leases. Whether the partitioning system is demountable and whether the small power and data are on a grid that tolerates a new layout decides whether the second reconfiguration is a weekend or a project.

Where does the noise go? Open plan with hard finishes is cheap to build and expensive to work in. Acoustic treatment costs a fraction of the partitioning budget and is the first thing struck from a value-engineering list.

Who holds the as-built information? Cable schedules, valve positions, the fire alarm cause-and-effect, the commissioning records. Without them, the next contractor prices investigation before pricing work, and the reinstatement survey at the end of the lease becomes a negotiation instead of an arithmetic exercise.

What is the plan for August? Site progress and the availability of consultants and inspectors both thin out in high summer. A programme that assumes an ordinary working month in August is optimistic in a way that is easy to correct at the planning stage and expensive to correct later.

The office fit-out section and the wider sector listings set out how these decisions differ by building type, and the coverage pages record where the relevant contractor base sits.

Common questions

Is Cat B just fitting furniture?

No. Cat B covers partitions, doors, joinery, the alterations to air conditioning, small power and data, lighting adjustments, decoration and the changes to fire detection that follow the new layout. Furniture is the visible part and rarely the largest part.

Can a tenant do a fit-out without a designer?

Not where the work touches escape routes, fire compartmentation, the electrical supply or the use class of the unit. Those submissions have to come from professionals registered with the technical chamber, and a contractor-only route leaves the tenant carrying a compliance risk at the end of the lease.

Does a fit-out add value for the landlord?

Partly, and it depends on how specific it is. Neutral, reusable work tends to survive a change of tenant. Highly branded or unusually configured space is generally reinstated, which is why the reinstatement clause deserves reading before the design starts rather than after.

How much contingency is sensible?

Enough to absorb what is behind the existing ceilings and floors, which nobody can see at tender stage in a converted building. In newly delivered space the unknowns are fewer, and the contingency can be lower for that reason rather than because the programme feels comfortable.

Should the fit-out and the lease negotiation run together?

Yes. The handover specification, the rent-free period, the reinstatement obligation and the permitted alterations are all commercial terms, and all four change the fit-out budget. Once the lease is signed, they stop being negotiable and start being constraints.

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