THE SHORT ANSWER
Opening an office in Almaty or Astana starts with three decisions: which city fits your regulator and clients, your move-in date, and who owns each part of the fit-out. Work backwards from move-in, allow 60 to 120 days for made-to-order furniture, and agree warranty terms and documents before you sign.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Pick the city where your regulator, clients and first hires are, and add the second city later.
- Plan backwards from move-in day. Made-to-order furniture can take 60 to 120 days, so the specification comes before the keys.
- Agree in writing who owns construction, IT, furniture and installation. Unowned scope is where a schedule usually slips.
- Herman Miller covers many products for 12 years, and a claim starts with the dealer, so keep the invoice and product codes.
- Ask every supplier for the same five documents before your head office or procurement team asks for them.
In this article
- How do you open an office in Almaty or Astana, step by step?
- Almaty or Astana: which city fits your first office?
- How long does it take to open an office in Almaty or Astana?
- What does an office fit-out in Kazakhstan include?
- How many desks, rooms and booths does a new office need?
- What warranty should you ask for on office furniture in Kazakhstan?
- What will your head office and procurement team ask for?
- How do you run a fit-out from another country?
- How do you compare quotes from fit-out suppliers?
- Frequently asked questions
- What should you do next?
Picture a regional workplace lead at a payments company in London or Dubai. The lease for the new Almaty floor is signed, the start date is in the diary, and the furniture plan so far is the phrase "we'll sort it out locally." That phrase has a habit of becoming the most expensive line in the project.
This guide is for international companies setting up a first office in Kazakhstan, and for the people who report to them. It covers the order of decisions, a worked timeline, who does what in a fit-out, the warranty questions that matter once the chairs arrive, and the documents your head office will ask for. The full scope of what we do sits on our office fit-out and furnishing page.
We design and furnish complete corporate offices across Kazakhstan, and we have worked here since 2001. We are an official Herman Miller and MillerKnoll dealer, so the examples lean towards furniture, warranty and delivery. Lease, tax and company registration questions belong with your legal advisers, and we say so where they come up.
How do you open an
office in Almaty or Astana, step by step?
You open an office in Almaty or Astana in seven steps: define what the office is for, choose the city, set the move-in date, agree who owns each scope, size the space, lock the specification and warranty, then install and hand over.
- Define what the office is for and who sits there
- Choose the city using regulator, clients and hiring
- Set the move-in date and work backwards
- Agree who owns construction, IT, furniture and installation
- Size seats, rooms and booths from attendance, not headcount
- Lock the specification, the warranty terms and the documents
- Install in phases and hand over with a service contact
The order matters because each step removes a question from the next. A move-in date is hard to set before you know who owns construction, and a furniture specification is hard to approve before you know how many people sit at once.
Almaty or Astana: which city fits your first office?
Choose the city where your regulator, biggest clients and first hires are. Astana is home to the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), so firms that plan an AIFC office should ask their legal advisers early what presence it requires. Almaty is Kazakhstan's largest city and the home of our showroom.
Astana's international community is growing fast. The AIFC reports that more than 1,400 new companies joined in 2025, 300 more than the year before, and its regulator reports 4,954 participants from 91 countries in its 2025 annual report. Firms that join from abroad usually answer to a head office, so expect English-language documents and head-office furniture standards on the project.
Almaty offers more choice than it did a year ago. Vacancy in the city's quality offices reached 4.5% in mid-July 2026, up from 2.8% in 2025, while Class A made up only 9% of vacant space in the first half of 2026. Space is easier to find, but a Class A office is still the harder one to get.
Questions that decide the city
|
Question |
Points to Astana when |
Points to Almaty when |
|
Where is your regulator or licence? |
Your status or licence comes from the AIFC |
You are not tied to the AIFC |
|
Where are your first clients? |
Most early clients are in the capital |
Most early clients are in Almaty |
|
Where will you hire first? |
You need people already working in the capital |
You need people already working in Almaty |
|
Where do you want to see furniture? |
A day trip to Almaty can be planned |
You can visit the showroom between meetings |
If you expect to open in both cities, choose a layout and a furniture range you can repeat. The second office then costs less design time, and the warranty paperwork follows one pattern. For Astana projects, start with our Astana office page.
To see what recent local offices look like, Office Snapshots lists projects in both cities.
How long does it take
to open an office in Almaty or Astana?
Opening an office in Almaty or Astana takes as long as its slowest item, and for furniture that is 60 to 120 days from order to delivery. Work backwards from your move-in date, and approve the specification at least 17 weeks earlier if you choose made-to-order pieces. Design and installation add time on both sides.
A furniture factory does not know about your launch event, and it will take exactly as long as it takes. That is why the plan starts at the move-in date and counts back, instead of starting at today and hoping.
WORKED EXAMPLE (ILLUSTRATIVE)
Say your team starts work on 1 September. Counting back 120 days puts the latest approved order on 4 May. Add six weeks for layout, specification and sign-offs, and design has to begin on 23 March. Ask every supplier which items are in stock locally and which are made to order, because stock items shorten the clock.
A backward plan from move-in day (illustrative)
|
Phase |
Timing before move-in |
What has to be ready |
|
City, lease and brief |
Before week 23 |
Headcount range, head-office standard, budget owner |
|
Layout, specification and sign-offs |
Weeks 23 to 17 |
Approved plan, product codes, warranty terms |
|
Order and production |
Week 17 for 120-day items, week 9 for 60-day items |
Signed order, deposit, delivery address |
|
Delivery and installation |
Weeks 2 to 0 |
Building access, lift booking, installers |
|
Handover and service |
Week 0 and after |
Snag list, warranty file, service contact |
Two things shorten the plan more than chasing does: a frozen specification and a named person who can approve changes within one working day. Both sit on your side of the table. If you are moving an existing Kazakhstan office rather than opening a first one, our office relocation page fits better.
What does an office
fit-out in Kazakhstan include?
An interior office fit out in Kazakhstan covers everything between an empty floor and a working office: layout, interior design, furniture, delivery, installation and service. Construction and engineering work, such as walls, ceilings, power and cooling, is usually a separate scope, and your lease and landlord decide who pays for it.
Our part is planning, furniture, delivery, installation and service. We plan the layout, specify and supply the furniture, install it and look after it afterwards, following the six-step process on our services page. Construction works are a separate contract in most projects, so we coordinate dates with your contractor.
Who usually owns what in a fit-out
|
Scope |
Usually owned by |
Question to settle before signing |
|
Shell and core (base building, lifts, risers) |
Landlord or developer |
In what state is the floor handed over, and by when? |
|
Construction and engineering (walls, ceilings, power, cooling) |
A contractor you appoint, or the landlord if the lease includes it |
Who pays, who supervises and who signs off? |
|
IT, data and AV |
Your IT team or an IT supplier |
Where do cable routes and power points go on the furniture plan? |
|
Layout and interior design |
A design team: Office Design or an architect you appoint |
Who approves changes, and how fast? |
|
Furniture, delivery and installation |
The furniture dealer |
What is in stock, what is made to order, and what is the delivery date? |
|
Service and warranty |
The dealer, backed by the manufacturer |
Who do you call, and what documents do they need? |
The second row deserves attention. Construction is usually priced and scheduled separately from furniture, so a late contractor moves the furniture date even when the chairs are ready.
BEFORE YOU SIGN
Do not sign the furniture contract until the construction schedule is written down and the building has confirmed delivery hours and lift access. Furniture that arrives before the floor is ready needs storage, and storage needs a budget.
How many desks, rooms and booths does a new office need?
Size the office from peak attendance, not from headcount. Headcount tells you how many people you employ; peak attendance tells you how many seats are used on your busiest day. Start from badge or booking data at your other offices, then add only the growth you have already approved.
Headcount is what HR reports. Peak attendance is what the lift lobby tells you on Tuesday at 10 a.m. A hybrid team of 60 shows why the two numbers differ.
Seats for a 60-person team (illustrative arithmetic)
|
Attendance pattern |
Seats needed |
Arithmetic |
|
Everyone, every day |
60 |
60 x 100% |
|
Three days a week on average, no peak |
36 |
60 x 3 ÷ 5 |
|
Three days a week, with a mid-week peak of 70% |
42 |
60 x 70% |
Seats are the easy part. Rooms and quiet places are where plans go wrong. A team that talks to head office in another time zone needs somewhere to take a call without the open floor listening, and acoustic booths do that without building a room.
Sort the floor by activity, not by department. The Living Office framework does this with work settings, from quiet focus areas to team spaces, and our office space planning service turns it into a layout.
See the furniture before you specify it
Visit our Almaty showroom to try seating and desks with your team before your head office signs off the specification. Office Design has furnished corporate offices across Kazakhstan since 2001.
Plan my showroom visit →
What warranty should you ask for on office furniture in Kazakhstan?
Ask for the manufacturer's own warranty, honoured through an authorised dealer, with parts and labour included. Herman Miller states that, with limited exceptions, its products carry a 12-year warranty covering parts and labour. Confirm that your dealer is authorised and that the warranty document applies to products bought in Kazakhstan.
Herman Miller publishes a separate international warranty for products bought outside the U.S. and Canada, so ask your dealer which document applies to your order. Claims start locally: the manufacturer's guidance is to check with the dealer or retailer where you bought the product.
For a claim you will need the complete product number, the FO number and the manufacture date, usually read from the label, plus photos of the label and of the problem. Your dealer will also want the invoice. A warranty you cannot claim is a handsome piece of paper. We list our dealer credentials on the MillerKnoll page.
EXPERT NOTE: KEEP A
WARRANTY FILE
Furniture outlives project teams. The person who bought the chairs will have changed role by the time one needs service, so build the warranty file on handover day. For each delivery, keep the invoice, a list of product numbers with their FO numbers and manufacture dates, and photos of the labels while the installers are still on site and the labels are easy to reach. Add the name and number of the dealer's service contact for that city. When a claim comes three years later, the file turns a search into a single email.
By Office Design team
Warranty questions to put to every supplier
|
Question |
Why it matters |
A good answer |
|
Whose warranty is it? |
Only the manufacturer sets the terms of its own warranty |
The manufacturer's, honoured through an authorised dealer |
|
Is the dealer authorised? |
Head office and procurement will ask for proof |
A dealer certificate or a listing on the manufacturer's dealer page |
|
Which document applies in Kazakhstan? |
Terms differ by region of purchase |
The international warranty document, supplied with the order |
|
What is covered? |
Parts, labour and exclusions differ by product |
Parts and labour in writing, with exclusions listed |
|
Who does the work, and where? |
A claim needs a local contact |
A named service contact for each city you open in |
|
What must you keep? |
Claims start from identifiers |
Invoice, product numbers, FO numbers, manufacture dates, label photos |
What will your head
office and procurement team ask for?
Head offices and procurement teams usually ask for the same five things: proof that the supplier is an authorised dealer, a product list with codes, the warranty document, a fixed quote and a delivery schedule. Gather them before the approval meeting, because each missing document adds another round of email.
- Dealer certificate showing authorised status
- Product list with manufacturer codes and finishes
- Warranty document that applies in Kazakhstan
- Fixed quote with scope, lead times and payment terms
- Delivery and installation schedule tied to move-in day
Procurement will ask for the dealer certificate the way an airline asks for a passport: politely, repeatedly, and you will not board without it.
Head offices often send a global workplace standard that names a manufacturer, a finish palette or a chair for every desk. Share it with your dealer in the first week, so that anything unavailable locally shows up while there is still time to agree a substitute with head office. Our page on Herman Miller for business covers our corporate Herman Miller projects.
Seven of the nine projects in our project portfolio were for international companies, so these requests are familiar to us.
How do you run a
fit-out from another country?
Name one approver on your side and one project manager on the supplier's side, and give them a standing weekly call. Approvals are the part of a remote project you control from a distance, so the decision log matters more than the site photos. Agree the rhythm in the contract.
- One approver on your side who can sign off layouts and substitutions within one working day
- One project manager on the supplier's side, named in the contract
- A decision log: what was decided, by whom, on which date and drawing version
- Photo reports at agreed milestones: delivery, installation start and handover
- A snag list walked on handover day, with a date against every fix
We run each project with one project manager from brief to handover, and our page on how a project runs from brief to handover shows the stages.
Ask for a phased handover if people arrive in waves. A floor at a time is easier to inspect than a whole building at once, and the first group tests your snag list before the second arrives.
How do you compare
quotes from fit-out suppliers?
Compare quotes line by line on scope, lead time, delivery, installation, warranty owner and payment terms, not on the total. Two totals that look close can describe different projects, so ask each supplier to price the same specification.
A quote that lists "furniture: 1 lot" has the precision of a weather forecast that says "sky: yes." Ask for quantities and product codes on every line.
What every quote line should show
|
Line |
What to look for |
Red flag |
|
Scope |
Itemised list with quantities and product codes |
A single lot price |
|
Lead time |
Days from order to delivery for each item |
One date for the whole order |
|
Delivery and installation |
Included or priced separately, with the site address |
Silent on lift access and floors |
|
Warranty |
Named warranty, its owner and the claim route |
'Warranty included' with no document |
|
Payment terms |
A schedule tied to milestones, with invoice details for your finance team |
A large payment before the specification is signed |
|
Validity |
A quote validity date and the currency of the price |
No validity date |
Our standard is a fixed quote or bill of quantities within 48 hours once the specification is clear, which lets you compare suppliers while the project is still flexible.
Frequently asked questions
Open where your regulator, biggest clients and first hires are. If that does not settle it, pick the city where you can see and approve furniture and layouts most easily. Add the second city later with a layout and furniture range you can repeat, so the warranty paperwork follows one pattern.
An authorised Herman Miller dealer is a reseller approved by the manufacturer to sell and service its products. It matters because Herman Miller's warranty guidance points owners back to the dealer where they bought the product, and procurement teams often ask for proof of status. Office Design is an official Herman Miller and MillerKnoll dealer.
At least 17 weeks before move-in if any item is made to order, because lead times can reach 120 days. Add design and approval time before that. Ask each supplier for lead times item by item, since stock items can arrive far sooner than made-to-order pieces.
Often yes for a small first team, because furniture, cabling and meeting rooms already exist. The trade-off is less control over layout, brand and acoustics. A full fit-out suits teams that expect to grow, host clients or follow a head-office workplace standard.
The budget depends on seats, specification, construction scope and lead times, so no honest price per desk exists without a brief. Ask each supplier to split the budget into furniture, delivery, installation and contingency, and compare like for like. A consultation is the quickest route to a first range.
Ask your dealer to confirm in writing that the warranty applies at each office address and to name the service contact for that city. Keep the invoice and product codes for every delivery, because a claim starts with them and the dealer cannot trace what it was never told.
What should you do next?
Decide four things this week: the city, the move-in date, the person who approves changes and the furniture standard your head office expects. Then ask every supplier for the same five documents and the same item-level lead times, so that your office in Almaty or Astana goes to approval with comparable quotes.
- Write down the move-in date and count back 17 weeks to the latest specification date.
- Ask your head office for its workplace standard and share it with your dealer.
- Request the five documents from every supplier on your shortlist.
If you want a second pair of eyes on the plan, we can review it with you in a 30-minute consultation. We have worked in Kazakhstan since 2001, and the review costs you nothing.
See the furniture before you specify it
Visit our Almaty showroom to try seating and desks with your team before your head office signs off the specification. Office Design has furnished corporate offices across Kazakhstan since 2001.
Plan my showroom visit →
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by the Office Design team. We design and furnish complete corporate offices across Kazakhstan, we have worked in the market since 2001, and we are an official Herman Miller and MillerKnoll dealer.
Keep reading
- Office Design blog: planning guides and Herman Miller guides
- About Office Design: our team and our story since 2001
- Warranty and returns
Sources
- $6bn raised through the Astana International Financial Centre in 2025 and over 1,400 new companies were registered. AIFC. Accessed 26 October 2026.
- AFSA publishes 2025 annual report detailing regulatory developments and supervisory outcomes. Astana Financial Services Authority. Accessed 26 October 2026.
- Warranty and Service. Herman Miller. Accessed 26 October 2026.
- Why offices are getting more expensive in Almaty (Russian-language article, 19 August 2026). Digital Business (digitalbusiness.kz). Accessed 26 October 2026.
- Browse Kazakhstan offices. Office Snapshots. Accessed 26 October 2026.