Office rates in Luton run from £260 per square metreThe value per square metre used to build up a property's Rateable Value. Comparing your £/m² rate to similar nearby properties is the main way to check whether your RV looks too high. on Capability Green down to £108 on Leagrave Road, against a area median of £135. The median office is assessed at £11,000, below the £12,000 threshold at which Small Business Rate Relief covers the whole bill — so 53.9% of offices here pay no business rates at all.
How an office is valued
Offices are valued on floor area, not on frontage. The Valuation OfficeThe government body that sets every property's Rateable Value. From April 2026 the VOA is part of HMRC (see below), but 'VOA' is still the common name for the valuation side of the work. measures the net internal area — the usable space inside, excluding lifts, stairs, plant rooms and structural walls — and applies a rate per square metre for that building and that location. Car parking, stores and any air conditioning are added or adjusted on top.
This is the opposite of how a shop is valued. A shop's worth hangs off the first 6.1 metres behind the window and halves as you go back, so two identical floor areas can differ by a fifth on shape alone. An office of a given size is worth what the rate says it is worth, which makes the rate itself the thing to check.
Top office locations in Luton
A pitch here is a street within one postcode district, because that is closer to how the rate is actually set than a street name is. Luton has 22 pitches carrying ten or more offices, covering 504 of its 742 office assessments.
| Pitch | Offices | Median RV | £/m² NIA | Range | Below £12,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability Green (LU1) | 81 | £40,000 | £260 | £145–£260 | 25% |
| Great Marlings (LU2) | 65 | £15,250 | £260 | £70–£260 | 29% |
| Dunstable Road (LU4) | 32 | £4,450 | £135 | £50–£330 | 81% |
| King Street (LU1) | 27 | £4,150 | £135 | £120–£135 | 89% |
| Luton Airport (LU2) | 27 | £46,750 | £120 | £85–£170 | 11% |
| Hitchin Road (LU2) | 24 | £9,050 | £135 | £115–£135 | 75% |
| Stuart Street (LU1) | 23 | £3,400 | £135 | £120–£160 | 96% |
| Dunstable Road (LU1) | 23 | £6,500 | £135 | £90–£330 | 74% |
| George Street West (LU1) | 22 | £4,275 | £135 | £90–£135 | 68% |
| George Street (LU1) | 18 | £14,500 | £135 | £100–£135 | 39% |
| The Mall (LU1) | 17 | £5,200 | £135 | £90–£135 | 65% |
| Upper George Street (LU1) | 16 | £12,875 | £135 | £90–£250 | 44% |
| Alma Street (LU1) | 16 | £14,750 | £135 | £90–£135 | 38% |
| Leagrave Road (LU3) | 16 | £1,400 | £108 | £108–£135 | 94% |
| Victoria Street (LU1) | 15 | £21,000 | £135 | £120–£135 | 40% |
| Guildford Street (LU1) | 14 | £22,125 | £133 | £90–£135 | 36% |
| Union Street (LU1) | 14 | £5,225 | £135 | £126–£135 | 79% |
| Park Street West (LU1) | 13 | £12,750 | £135 | £90–£135 | 38% |
| Leagrave Road (LU4) | 11 | £6,000 | £135 | £135–£425 | 73% |
| Wellington Street (LU1) | 10 | £5,350 | £135 | £135–£135 | 80% |
Want to know how your own office compares with the rest of its street? Look up any Luton property — it takes about two minutes, it is free, and it shows the comparable evidence the Valuation Office holds. For more pitch and market data, get in touch via the feedback form.
The same street, different rate
A rate per square metre reflects the building as much as the street: age, floorplate, lift provision, whether it has been refurbished. Dunstable Road in LU4 carries 32 offices assessed between £50 and £330 per square metre — a 6.6-fold range on one pitch. A tired floor in an older building sitting near the top of that range is worth questioning.
Each bar spans the lowest and highest Zone A rate recorded on that pitch. Shared scale, running to £330 per m².
Why an office assessment goes wrong
The area is measured wrong
Net internal area excludes lifts, stairs, plant and structural walls. Where those have been counted in, or where a floor has been sub-divided since the survey, the area on the valuation is larger than the space you actually occupy.
Check the recorded area against a current measured survey.
The rate belongs to a better building
Capability Green carries 81 offices on a single median rate. A rate set by refurbished space applied to an unimproved floor above a shop is the commonest error in this sector.
Compare your rate with the rest of your pitch before anything else.
Quality adjustments are missing
No lift above two floors, no air conditioning, poor natural light, awkward floorplates — all of these attract an allowance, and all of them are easy for a mass valuation to miss.
List what the building lacks, not only what it has.
Space is empty or unusable
Offices left empty attract empty property relief for a period, and space that cannot be occupied at all may come out of the assessment entirely. Neither happens automatically.
Tell the council about empty space; tell the VOA about unusable space.
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General information, not financial or legal advice. Independent service — not endorsed by the VOA or HMRC. Official rateable values and formal decisions come only from the VOA/HMRC. England only.