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October 10, 2026 | by Michael Monday
There are three ways into an office in Frankfurt, and they take anywhere from a week to half a year. A flexible office is a fitted room on a short licence with one monthly fee. A managed office is a whole floor an operator fits out for you on a one-to-three-year agreement. A conventional lease is the long route: your own fit-out, your own contract, and a term measured in years. Which one fits depends on headcount, how long you are committing for and whether you have an entity in the country yet. This guide covers who the players are, who pays, and what each route involves. Frankfurt is the financial capital of the eurozone, with the ECB, the Bundesbank and the German stock exchange, and its office market is shaped by banks, funds, law firms and the consultancies that serve them. Serviced offices concentrate in the Bankenviertel and Westend towers; the airport and the Eschborn business park take the back-office and logistics demand.
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Operators own or run the flexible buildings and sell desks and offices direct: IWG (Regus, Spaces, Signature), WeWork, Design Offices, Mindspace, Satellite Office, WorkRepublic, ecos office center, Collection Business Centers, Agendis Business Center. Flex brokers and marketplaces list several operators in one place: Instant Offices, Coworker, Workthere, and SquareFoot. Leasing agents and tenant representatives handle conventional space: JLL, CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Savills, Engel & Völkers Commercial. Operators in Frankfurt mostly quote on enquiry; SquareFoot shows published rates where they exist and asks the operator for the rest.
| Route | What happens |
|---|---|
| Flexible office | One to two weeks. A usage agreement, a fitted room, usually an immediate start. |
| Managed office | Four to twelve weeks for a self-contained floor fitted and run by the operator on a one-to-three-year agreement. |
| Gewerbemietvertrag (commercial lease) | Three to six months: offer, a lease that satisfies the written-form rule, your own fit-out, and a five-to-ten-year term with options. |
SquareFoot is a marketplace, not a broker in Frankfurt. It is collecting the operators’ published centres and prices in one place, lets you shortlist and ask for a tour, and hands the request to the operator or a local partner who confirms availability and the exact price. The tenant pays nothing; the operator pays the introducer when a contract is signed. Flexible space is quoted per Arbeitsplatz (desk) per month; conventional leases are quoted per square metre per month as net cold rent (Kaltmiete), before service charges (Nebenkosten) and VAT at 19%.
SquareFoot is adding Frankfurt operators now; live listings for Frankfurt will appear on the markets page as they are collected. Guide written by SquareFoot; last reviewed October 2026.
Flexible office: One to two weeks. Managed office: Four to twelve weeks for a self-contained floor fitted and run by the operator on a one-to-three-year agreement. Gewerbemietvertrag (commercial lease): Three to six months: offer, a lease that satisfies the written-form rule, your own fit-out, and a five-to-ten-year term with options.
Flexible space: the operator pays the introducer when a tenant signs; the tenant pays nothing and the rate is the same as going direct.
Not for flexible space, which a foreign company can take on a usage agreement. A commercial lease usually needs a German entity; regulated financial firms also need BaFin authorisation before they can trade.
Related: Flexible office vs lease in Frankfurt · Where to put an office in Frankfurt · SquareFoot international markets
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