Where to look for cheap office premises in Toruń
Rental prices on the Old Town Square in Toruń can knock you off your feet, but just move 140 meters to the side for the rate to drop by almost half. Looking for an office in the historical part of the city is not just a matter of prestige, but primarily a cold calculation of renovation and operating costs. We checked which streets today give a real chance for a return on investment in less than 7 years.
Dark sides of bright addresses
Most entrepreneurs start looking from Szeroka or Żeglarska street, which is the first mistake we have seen in 12 years of running Monetra. On these main thoroughfares, you pay for the tenement owner's marketing, not for the real usefulness of the premises for your team. The average price per square meter on Szeroka is currently about 83 zlotys, while on parallel Szczytna you can find offers for 47 zlotys. This is a difference that, for an office with an area of 64 square meters, leaves over 2,300 zlotys in your pocket monthly. This money is better spent on decent window soundproofing or modern gas heating, because old walls can be very expensive to maintain in winter.
The brick doesn't lie – the closer to the town hall, the harder it is for peace and parking spaces for clients, which is crucial for a design office or law firm. On side streets such as Podmurna or Mostowa, pedestrian traffic is 67% lower than on the main Royal Route, which paradoxically helps employees focus. We noticed that 34 of our last 43 revitalization projects concerned precisely premises located in the second line of buildings. The tenements there often have preserved original ceilings and details that give the interior character without having to spend a fortune on a decorator. We look for a second bottom in every offer, because often behind a shabby facade lies a healthy structure and dry cellars.
On Szczytna you will pay 47 PLN per meter. On Szeroka 83 PLN. The same brick, different margin for prestige.
Bydgoskie Przedmieście as an alternative to the Old Town
If the starting budget is really tight, it's worth going outside the defensive walls and looking at Bydgoskie Przedmieście, especially the area around Mickiewicza street. This is where the most magnificent tenements in Toruń are located, offering square footages exceeding 110 square meters at prices unattainable in the center. In 2023, we helped one of our clients rent a premises there, where heating costs after replacing windows dropped by 31% compared to the previous tenant. Bydgoskie has its own specific atmosphere that attracts creative and IT industries looking for something more than an office open space in a glass block.
The biggest challenge in Bydgoskie are legal issues and the state of electrical installations, which often still remember the seventies. Before you sign a 3-year lease, let's check the power allocation together – in 12 out of 15 cases, it is necessary to apply for a power increase, which takes about 5 weeks. This is an important detail if you plan to put powerful servers or several air conditioners in the office. Old walls, new profits – that's our slogan, but provided you don't let yourself be surprised by hidden technical defects, which in Bydgoskie are a standard due to the specific soil under this district.
What to watch out for when negotiating with the administrator
In Toruń, a large part of the tenements belong to the city or large managers, which changes the rules of the game compared to private owners. Be prepared for the fact that the process of obtaining consent for a sign on the facade can take up to 4 months, because it requires approval from the Municipal Monument Conservator's Office. We at Monetra have practiced this on 43 saved tenements – we know which designs pass right away and which land in the trash after the first visit. Don't be fooled by promises that 'it will somehow work out', because fines for unauthorized work in a UNESCO zone start from several thousand zlotys and grow very quickly.
Let's count every meter – literally. Often, the total area is given in offers, which includes slants under the roof or recesses where you won't put a desk. The real usable area is sometimes 12-15% smaller than the one on paper. In March 2024, we detected such a discrepancy in a tenement on Łazienna street, which allowed the client to reduce the rent by 420 zlotys per month. This is seemingly a small amount, but over a five-year contract, it gives savings of 25,200 zlotys, which can be invested in better office equipment or high-speed fiber optics, for which in the Old Town you still sometimes have to fight with providers.
Fines for an illegal sign in the Old Town hurt more than high rent. Do it legally from the start.
Investment in renovation – is it worth it?
Many of our clients ask if it's worth taking a place for total renovation in exchange for rent exemption for a few months. Honestly, it depends on the structure of the contract. If the owner gives you 6 months of rent holidays with a renovation for 80 thousand zlotys, you are giving him a gift on which he earns and you lose financial liquidity. We checked that a fair arrangement is one where the cost of expenditures is settled in 67% of the rent value throughout the duration of the lease. At Monetra, we help calculate such a model so that after two years you don't wake up with a beautiful office that you have to leave because the contract was poorly constructed.
Pay attention to details others forget: gravity ventilation in old tenements often does not manage with 10 people in one room. Modernization of the ventilation system is a cost of about 6,800 - 12,000 zlotys, but without it, your employees will have headaches after just 3 hours of work. Remember, the brick doesn't lie – it breathes, but only if you don't cover it with cheap polystyrene from the inside. Since 2012, we have been promoting solutions that respect the building structure and provide a healthy climate for work, which translates into a 23% lower number of sick leaves in our clients' teams.
