Office Accommodation Home

DIT’s Property Directorate is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to allow the delivery of government’s office accommodation standards and other whole-of-government targets for effective accommodation use. Primary responsibilities are the management of leases in privately owned buildings, the management of government owned office buildings and day to day property management including payment and collection of rent.

The key responsibilities for office accommodation planning, leasing, fit out construction and management are to ensure the efficient, cost-effective provision of government’s office accommodation in accordance with government accommodation policies, guidelines and regulatory requirements as outlined in Government Office Accommodation Policy Framework (PC018).

DIT’s Property Directorate manages office accommodation proposals across Government in relation to costs and policy compliance and is the single point of contact for the commercial property market in the leasing of government office accommodation.

Building Maintenance Request

The Property Services Help Desk is a call centre for facilitating breakdown, maintenance or minor works requests in buildings managed by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT). To log a work request, please refer to the following information.

The mandatory office accommodation space standards for all new, refurbished or upgraded fit outs should have a maximum occupancy ratio of 12m² per work point. This calculation excludes exceptional Special Agency functions outside normal broad based office accommodation usage.

Open plan floors with low form workstations are the standard to be observed for all government fit outs. Offices are discouraged for all but Chief Executives. (Offices for Deputy Chief Executives can only be approved by exception by the relevant Chief Executive and reported to GOAC).

Future ways of working and space utilisation strategies incorporating work from home, desk sharing, technology and collaboration spaces mean a change from calculating against numbers of staff or FTE and analysing workpoints required.

Staff number x 80% = Workpoint number required

To allow for lower occupancy demand for workpoints where flexible working practices are being used, a space utilisation ratio of 80% is recommended as a guide. This is to provide a greater efficiency return to government where staff are accessing more flexible work practices such as working from home, part-time hours and staff working off site and on leave. Having additional support and collaboration spaces allows set down options between meetings for example.

To assist with initial space and fit out budget requirements Agencies can refer to the Area Calculator within the Agency Request for Office Accommodation Form  (XLSX, 47 KB).

Refer also Project Initiation and Part 3: Workplace Design in the Fit Out Guidelines.