At today's market medians, a 1,000 sqm office in Warsaw costs around PLN 1.33 million a year: PLN 924,000 in rent, PLN 358,000 in service charge and tens of thousands for electricity on the tenant's own meter. In 2027 you need to add PLN 42,000 to 63,000 to that figure, depending on which HICP reading goes into the January indexation and how much of the energy price increase the property manager passes into the service charge. Below is the calculation step by step, with room for your own numbers.
November is the month when finance directors close their budgets and building managers send out service charge budgets. The cost of an office rises in 2027 for three independent reasons at once, and each has a different mechanism. We have put them into a single calculation so they can go into the spreadsheet in one go.
Starting point: what a 1,000 sqm office costs in 2026
We assume a tenant paying rates at today's Warsaw market medians. Data from OfficeList Pulse for Q3 2026, described in our Warsaw market report: average asking rent EUR 17.52 per sqm, median service charge advance PLN 29.80 per sqm. EUR/PLN at the National Bank of Poland rate of 29 October 2026: 4.3951.
| Item | Calculation | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | EUR 17.52 × 1,000 sqm × 12 × 4.3951 | PLN 924,000 |
| Service charge | PLN 29.80 × 1,000 sqm × 12 | PLN 357,600 |
| Electricity on the tenant's meter | 50,000 kWh × PLN 0.878 | PLN 43,900 |
| Total | PLN 1,325,500 |
Two notes on the table. The rent in a lease signed a few years ago may differ from today's asking rate: usually higher if it went through the 2022-2023 indexations, or lower if the lease is recent and negotiated with incentives. The electricity consumption on the tenant's meter is an assumption to be replaced with the figure from your own invoices. The price of PLN 0.878 per kWh is the average for consumers using 500-2,000 MWh a year in Poland in the first half of 2026 according to Eurostat, excluding VAT.
Item one: rent indexation from 1 January 2027
Euro rent is raised every year by the euro area HICP. In September 2026 annual euro area inflation was 3.8%, the highest since 2023. Which figure ends up on your invoice depends on the definition in the lease. If the lease refers to the December-to-December change and the last quarter's readings stay at September's level, indexation will be around 3.8%. If it refers to the annual average, it will be lower, because the year started at 1.7% in January and 1.9% in February. At September's level through to year end, the 2026 average comes out at around 3.0%.
| Scenario | Index | Additional rent cost in 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Annual average HICP | 3.0% | +PLN 27,700 |
| December to December | 3.8% | +PLN 35,100 |
Calculation: PLN 924,000 × index. HICP readings: Eurostat, release of 16 October 2026.
Then there is the exchange rate. Rent is settled in zloty at the NBP rate, so every 1% weakening of the zloty adds another PLN 9,200 a year at this size. A zloty budget is best calculated at a rate a few grosz above today's. How the indexation clause itself works and what can be changed in it is covered in our article on HICP rent indexation.
Item two: the service charge
The advance for 2027 will arrive from the property manager in December. In Q3 2026 the median asking advance in Warsaw rose 2.6% quarter on quarter, from PLN 29.05 to PLN 29.80 per sqm. For 2027 two factors push budgets up: the minimum wage, which rises 3% to PLN 4,950 from January and feeds into security and cleaning, and energy, covered below.
| Scenario | Increase in advance | Additional cost in 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Cautious, in line with inflation | 3% | +PLN 10,700 |
| High, with the energy increase passed through | 6% | +PLN 21,500 |
Calculation: PLN 357,600 × increase. The scenarios are our assumptions, not a market forecast.
An advance is not a price. After the year the landlord reconciles it against the costs actually incurred, and a top-up or refund follows. So the 2027 budget should also include a reserve for the 2026 reconciliation, usually a few percent of the annual advance. What service charges look like in other cities and what exactly sits inside them is in our article on office service charges.
Item three: electricity
Energy enters the bill twice: through the tenant's meter and through the common parts in the service charge. The exchange contract for 2027 delivery cost PLN 556 per MWh in September, 28% more than in March. The wholesale price is roughly half of an office building's bill, so if the building buys energy at current prices, the electricity bill may rise by well over ten percent. If the manager contracted part of the volume earlier, the increase will be smaller. Capacity fee rates for 2027 will be announced by the regulator in the autumn, another unknown.
| Scenario | Energy price increase | Additional cost on the tenant's meter |
|---|---|---|
| Energy partly contracted | 7% | +PLN 3,100 |
| Energy at September's prices | 14% | +PLN 6,100 |
Calculation: PLN 43,900 × increase. BASE_Y-27 contract: TGE via PAP Biznes.
Where these prices come from, why electricity for companies in Poland is dearer than in Germany and what to ask the property manager before accepting the budget is in our article on office electricity prices.
How much to add to the 2027 budget
| Item | Cautious scenario | High scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Rent indexation | +PLN 27,700 | +PLN 35,100 |
| Service charge | +PLN 10,700 | +PLN 21,500 |
| Electricity on the tenant's meter | +PLN 3,100 | +PLN 6,100 |
| Total | +PLN 41,500 (+3.1%) | +PLN 62,700 (+4.7%) |
For a 500 sqm office the amounts are half as large, for 2,000 sqm twice as large, because all three items scale with floor area. The calculation leaves out the exchange rate, the 2026 service charge reconciliation, parking and any increases agreed in amendments, each of which can move the result by tens of thousands of zloty on its own.
What to do before the budget closes
Three items, three different moments when they can still be influenced.
- Indexation. For 2027 it is already settled, but check that the landlord applies the index as defined in the lease: euro area rather than the whole EU, the right reference period. A lease renewal is the moment to ask for a cap on annual increases.
- Service charge. The manager's budget can be challenged before you accept it. Ask about the energy price assumed in the budget, common-area consumption in MWh and items that should not be charged to tenants. We list those items in our article on ten costs to exclude.
- Electricity on the meter. The lease should say that energy is re-invoiced at cost, with no mark-up. If it does not, that is a topic for the next amendment.
If the lease ends in 2027 or 2028, this calculation is also the starting point for the stay-or-move conversation. Asking rents in Warsaw are rising, but the effective rent after incentives is usually 15-25% below the headline, which changes the comparison with your current, indexed rate completely. Where space of this size is available today is shown on our 1,000 sqm office in Warsaw page (in Polish).
