5 Key Questions About Choosing a CBD Office That Too Many Teams Ignore
Most teams shop for office space like they buy a phone plan - they look at the headline price and stop there. Rent is obvious, but practical costs hide in internet quality, commuting conditions and building services. This Q&A walks through five focused questions you should ask before signing a lease. I’ll give real calculations, negotiation moves and a contrarian take on when cheap works and when it ruins your year.
Is Monthly Rent the Only Number That Matters When Choosing a CBD Office?
No. Rent is the easiest metric to compare and negotiate, but it’s usually only 30-60% of the total occupancy cost in a real-world exercise. You also need to budget for:
- Utilities and service charges (common area maintenance, aircon, security) Internet connectivity and redundancy Fit-out costs and ongoing maintenance Employee commuting time, which translates to productivity and absenteeism costs Downtime risks if the building has poor infrastructure
Example scenario: a 1,000 sq ft office in a mid-tier CBD building asking SGD 8/sq ft/month = SGD 8,000/month rent. Add:
- Service charge SGD 2/sq ft = SGD 2,000/month Electricity and water SGD 400/month Basic internet 500 Mbps SGD 300/month Fit-out amortized SGD 1,000/month
True monthly outlay: SGD 11,700. If your team loses 2 hours/month per person to poor commute or outages, staff cost easily adds another SGD 1,500-3,000/month depending on payroll.
Will Choosing the Cheapest Office Save My Business Money?
Not always. The cheapest rent can be a false economy when it cuts into operational reliability or staff morale. Here are three common traps and how to spot them:
- Poor internet options: Old buildings sometimes have only one telco riser. If that provider has outages or throttling during peak hours, you’ll see daily productivity hits. Lost time from a 2-hour outage for a 20-person team making SGD 8,000/month in wages could cost SGD 667 in lost labor alone per major outage. Add client trust and revenue risk for critical services. Bad last-mile access: A low rent building that’s a 10-minute walk to the MRT but with no sheltered route means wet employees in monsoon months, higher late arrivals and more sick days. A 5% increase in absenteeism in a 20-person office with average fully-burdened salaries of SGD 4,500/month is roughly SGD 2,250/month. Hidden capex for connectivity: Some landlords expect tenants to pay for building cabling and riser access. If that adds SGD 15,000 upfront for dedicated fiber installation, your cheap rent quickly looks expensive.
Contrarian point: If your team is mostly remote and your daily operations don’t need low latency or constant uptime, a cheaper office with basic connectivity can be the right call. The trick is matching office quality to real operating needs, not to perceived prestige.
How Do I Actually Test Internet Speed, Reliability and Sheltered MRT Access Before I Sign?
Don’t trust a landlord’s brochure. Take these practical steps before you put down a deposit.
Internet: what to test and how
Ask the landlord which telcos are present in the building and whether there are dedicated fiber ducts. Get their contact details and request a record of outages in the last 12 months. Run speed tests at the space at different times of day: 9am, noon, 3pm and 7pm. Use speedtest.net or fast.com on both wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Wired tests are the priority. Measure latency and packet loss using ping and traceroute to your cloud provider or critical SaaS apps. Latency above 50 ms to regional cloud endpoints can degrade VoIP and video calls. Ask for a temporary working space access or do a day trial with your engineers to run a continuous ping/throughput test for 48-72 hours. That will reveal congestion or hourly throttling behavior. Verify SLAs: can you get a dedicated circuit and an SLA for mean time to repair (MTTR)? If the landlord cannot commit, factor in redundancy cost - a second ISP via 4G/5G backup or an alternate fiber path.Sheltered MRT access - what to check
- Walk the commute during peak rain hours. Does the route from the MRT to the building stay covered? If not, how long is the uncovered stretch? Ten or more minutes exposed in heavy rain is a problem. Map last-mile transit: number of sheltered entries/exits, covered bus stops, skybridges. Count elevation changes and escalators that get congested. Consider umbrella storage and dry footwear facilities. Small amenities cut friction and matter on rainy days. Ask building management about past flood incidents, drainage upgrades, and stormwater plans. Buildings near low-lying roads often see water pooling even with covered walkways.
Quick decision checklist before signing
- Have you tested internet at peak hours for 48 hours? Can you get a dedicated circuit and written MTTR from the telco or landlord? Did you walk the shelter route in rain and evening conditions? Are upfront cabling costs disclosed and reasonable? Is the landlord willing to negotiate rent credit for connectivity installation or to include it in the lease?
Should I Prioritize Sheltered MRT Access Over Lower Rent?
Prioritization depends on your operating model, staff mix and brand needs. Here are three scenarios to clarify trade-offs.
Scenario A - High-collaboration office with many in-person client meetings
Outcome: Prioritize sheltered access and premium connectivity. The brand impression and reliable commute matter. Example: a consultancy with 30 consultants who meet clients daily should avoid the cheap building a 10-minute uncovered walk away. Avoided lost productivity and client cancellations often justify paying SGD 2-4/sq ft more in rent.
propertynet.sgScenario B - Small tech team that is hybrid and tolerant of occasional remote work
Outcome: Lower rent can be fine. However, insist on a guaranteed internet failover plan. If your team mostly codes and can work remotely on uplift days, cheap rent with a 4G backup router could save money.
Scenario C - Customer-facing operations with strict uptime SLAs
Outcome: Never compromise on network SLAs. MRT shelter matters, but connectivity tops the list. Build redundancy into the contract. Budget for dual diverse fiber paths and an automatic failover firewalls. Expect to pay a premium - sometimes 20-40% of your networking budget for true redundancy.
Negotiation tip: If a building offers covered MRT connectivity at a premium, calculate the break-even. Example: paying SGD 3/sq ft extra for a 1,000 sq ft space = SGD 3,000/month. If this reduces staff churn by 2 people/year with fully-burdened cost SGD 80,000/year, the rent premium is justified. Conversely, if your staff are mostly remote, it’s not worth it.
What Advanced Lease and Networking Clauses Should I Negotiate to Protect Operations?
Don’t sign a lease that leaves connectivity and commute risk unallocated. Ask to include these provisions:
- Landlord connectivity disclosure: list of incumbent telcos, last 12-month outage log and riser maps. Tenant right to install dedicated fiber with landlord cooperation, and clear cost sharing for common area digging. Rent credits or free months if the landlord-approved internet is unavailable for X days in a row during the first year. Access hours and guaranteed response time for building management during peak commuting hours - for example, dedicated staff to assist with shelter clearing during storms. Flexibility on routing for network cabling so you can bring in a second ISP without excessive landlord approval steps.
Ask your lawyer to include a service-level clause tied to specific repair timelines and remedies. For example: if building fiber is down for more than 8 hours, tenant receives a pro-rated rent credit for each day beyond that threshold until the issue is resolved. Landlords dislike rent credits, but early negotiation gets you leverage.
How Will Remote Work Trends and Climate Patterns Change the Value of CBD Offices Over the Next Three Years?
Expect a shift in two forces that change how you value rent, connectivity and sheltered access:
- Remote-first adoption lowers the premium for prime addresses but raises the value of reliable in-office infrastructure. Teams that choose to meet in person will demand higher-quality spaces when they do show up. Climate volatility - heavier rains and storm events - will raise the importance of sheltered access. Buildings that invested in elevated walkways and robust drainage become more valuable to tenants who need predictable commutes.
Concrete projections:
- Office demand bifurcation: price-sensitive, largely-remote teams will cluster in cheaper nodes with good internet but limited walkability. Core client-facing teams will consolidate into resilient CBD buildings that offer sheltered access and redundant fiber. Lease terms will trend toward shorter commitments with exit options or co-tenancy clauses. Landlords will counter with service assurances, especially on connectivity.
Actionable planning steps:
- Build network redundancy into your operating budget now. The incremental monthly cost of a managed 4G/5G failover (SGD 150-300) is small insurance against outage losses. When comparing properties, factor worst-case weather and peak-hour commute times into your TCO calculations, not just average travel times. Keep lease terms flexible: negotiate breakpoints tied to connectivity or major building upgrades so you can move if the landlord fails to invest in resiliency.
Final Practical Checklist Before You Sign
Use this as a last-minute reality check:
- Have you run multi-hour internet tests at peak times on wired connections? Is there a documented list of building telcos and outage history? Can you secure a tenant right-to-install clause for dedicated fiber? Did you test the sheltered walk from the nearest MRT in actual rain and evening conditions? Have you modeled the cost of downtime and absenteeism against the rent differential? Is there an agreed remediation or rent credit clause for connectivity failures?
Choosing an office is a product decision for your team. Low rent can look attractive on a spreadsheet, but when you add the real costs of poor internet, wet commutes and hidden capex, the calculus changes. Pick the package that matches how your team actually works and how sensitive your customers are to downtime. If you want, tell me your city, team size and operating model and I’ll run a quick cost comparison and negotiation script you can use with the landlord.