Short answer: a commercial fit-out in the Philippines budgets to roughly ₱6,000–₱12,000/sqm for a basic functional build, ₱13,000–₱24,000/sqm for a standard commercial fit-out, and ₱25,000–₱45,000/sqm for premium. Those are construction figures only. Furniture, professional fees, permit fees and contingency typically add another 20–40% on top — which is why a fit-out that "came in on budget" so often didn't.
Basic: ₱6,000–₱12,000/sqm · Standard: ₱13,000–₱24,000/sqm · Premium: ₱25,000–₱45,000/sqm · Loose FF&E: ₱3,500–₱9,000/sqm · Professional fees: 6–10% · Contingency: 10%
Fit-out cost figures are worth distrusting unless they reconcile with something. These do. Our commercial building cost guide prices the same building at three states of completion: shell only at ₱22,000–₱28,000/sqm, semi-finished at ₱27,000–₱38,000/sqm, and fully fitted at ₱38,000–₱55,000/sqm.
Subtract the shell from the fully fitted figure and the fit-out portion falls out at roughly ₱16,000–₱27,000/sqm — which is where a standard-to-premium office fit-out sits. The bands in this article are that same delta, broken into grades and adjusted for the fact that a tenant fitting out an existing warm shell is not paying for everything a developer counts in "fully fitted."
| Grade | Cost/sqm | What's in it |
|---|---|---|
| Basic / functional | ₱6,000–₱12,000 | Painted walls, vinyl or basic tile flooring, minimal drywall partitions, existing ceiling reused or simple grid, surface lighting, power and data outlets to standard density, wall-mounted split aircon. Typical of a small back-office, clinic or provincial branch. |
| Standard commercial | ₱13,000–₱24,000 | Full ceiling replacement, glazed and solid partitions, meeting and conference rooms, pantry with joinery, upgraded flooring, distributed HVAC with proper diffuser layout, structured cabling, sprinkler and detector relocation, coordinated MEPFS documentation. The band most Philippine office fit-outs land in. |
| Premium | ₱25,000–₱45,000 | Bespoke joinery, glass fronts and acoustic partitions, feature ceilings and lighting design, high-spec HVAC zoning, AV and conferencing integration, raised or specialist flooring, brand-detailed reception. Head offices and client-facing flagships. |
The grades are not marketing tiers — they map to different scopes of MEPFS work. The reason standard costs double basic is rarely the finishes: it is the ceiling coming out, which drags air conditioning distribution, sprinkler heads, detectors and lighting into the scope with it.
Builds a full fit-out budget — construction, FF&E, professional fees, contingency — and adds the statutory permit fees from the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096, including the alteration and change-of-use assessments most budgets leave out.
Two identical floor plates can differ by 15–20% on fit-out cost purely because of what the landlord handed over. The terms get used loosely in Philippine leasing, so pin them down in writing before signing:
| Handover state | What the landlord provides | What the tenant pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Bare shell | Structure, external envelope, screeded floor, a service connection point, sometimes a toilet core | Ceiling, flooring, all HVAC distribution, sprinkler layout, detectors, distribution boards, everything else |
| Warm shell | Ceiling grid, general lighting, HVAC distribution, sprinkler coverage, power to a distribution board, finished common areas | Partitions, joinery, finishes, reconfiguration of the base systems, data and AV |
| Existing fit-out | A previous tenant's build, sometimes with a make-good already done | Strip-out and disposal before anything new starts — plus the risk of what's found behind the ceiling |
Not the marketing floor plan — the actual sprinkler layout, HVAC distribution, electrical riser capacity and slab-to-slab height. A ceiling void that turns out to be 350 mm, or a distribution board with no spare ways, changes a fit-out design and its cost after the lease is already signed. This is the cheapest due diligence in the whole process and it is routinely skipped.
The IRR of PD 1096 assesses fit-out work under its repairs and alterations schedule, and the rates are modest:
| Item | Rate (all Groups) |
|---|---|
| Alteration/renovation/improvement on vertical dimensions — facades, exterior and interior walls | ₱5.00 per sq m |
| Alteration/renovation/improvement on horizontal dimensions — floorings, ceilings and roofing | ₱5.00 per sq m |
| Repairs costing more than ₱5,000.00 | 1% of the detailed repair cost |
| Demolition — buildings in all Groups, per sq m of floor area | ₱3.00 per sq m |
| Demolition — building systems/frames or portion thereof, per vertical or horizontal dimension | ₱4.00 per sq m |
| Change in use or occupancy, per sq m of area affected | ₱5.00 per sq m |
On a 300 sq m fit-out those assessments come to a few thousand pesos against a multi-million peso project. The penalty for skipping them does not scale the same way: the IRR imposes a 100% surcharge of the building fees for construction, alteration or change of use without a permit, with staged surcharges of 10, 25, 50 and 100% where work started while the permit was still pending — and the occupancy consequences of an unpermitted change of use are worse than the money.
Landlord Approval Is Not a Government Permit
This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding in Philippine tenant fit-outs. A mall or building administrator approving your fit-out drawings is a contractual approval under your lease. It is not a Building Permit, and it does not substitute for the ancillary permits. The IRR is blunt about the latter: "The Building Permit is null and void if not accompanied by the Ancillary Permits." The full filing requirement is here.
Fit-out tendering goes wrong in a specific way: three contractors quote three different scopes and the cheapest one is cheapest because it left the most out. The fix is unglamorous.
The alteration, repair, demolition and change-of-use fees, the mechanical and electrical ancillary permit schedules, and the administrative surcharges were read from the text of the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096 as published by the DPWH. The per-square-metre construction, strip-out and FF&E ranges are AEDO planning figures for 2026, reconciled against the shell and fully-fitted costs in our commercial building cost guide — they are market estimates for budgeting, not quotations, and a real quote requires a drawn scope. Location, building grade, access restrictions and programme all move them.
How much does an office fit-out cost per square metre in the Philippines?
As a 2026 planning range, a basic functional fit-out runs about ₱6,000 to ₱12,000 per square metre, a standard commercial fit-out about ₱13,000 to ₱24,000, and a premium fit-out about ₱25,000 to ₱45,000. Those bands cover construction works only. Loose furniture, professional fees, permit fees and contingency are separate, and together they typically add another 20 to 40 percent on top of the construction figure.
What is the difference between a bare shell and a warm shell?
A bare shell is structure, external envelope and a service connection point — no ceiling, no flooring, no distributed mechanical, electrical or fire protection. A warm shell adds the base building systems: ceiling grid, general lighting, air conditioning distribution, sprinkler coverage and power to a distribution board. Starting from a bare shell adds roughly 10 to 20 percent to a fit-out budget, because the tenant is paying for base building work that a warm shell already includes.
What permit fees apply to an office fit-out in the Philippines?
Under the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096, alteration, renovation or improvement on vertical dimensions such as interior walls is assessed at ₱5.00 per square metre for all Groups, and the same ₱5.00 per square metre applies to horizontal dimensions such as floorings and ceilings. Demolition is assessed at ₱3.00 per square metre of floor area. A change in use or occupancy carries a ₱5.00 per square metre fee on the area affected. Mechanical and electrical ancillary permit fees are assessed separately on tons of refrigeration and total connected load.
Why is a fit-out quote always lower than the final cost?
Because a contractor quotes the construction works, and a fit-out budget is more than construction works. The items most often missing are loose furniture and equipment, professional design and MEPFS fees, permit and ancillary permit fees, landlord fit-out deposits and after-hours work charges, IT and structured cabling, signage, and the make-good obligation at the end of the lease. None of those are the contractor being evasive — they are simply outside the scope that was priced.
What happens if a fit-out is done without a building permit?
The IRR of PD 1096 imposes a 100 percent surcharge of the building fees for construction, alteration or change of use carried out without a permit, with staged surcharges of 10, 25, 50 and 100 percent where work started while the permit was still pending. Landlord approval of a fit-out is not a government permit, and the surcharge falls on the party that did the work, which in a tenant fit-out is usually the tenant.
Most fit-out overruns are scope problems discovered late, not price problems. AEDO produces the drawn scope, the coordinated MEPFS documentation and the permit filings that let you tender properly — nationwide design, with design-build delivery in Negros Oriental.