Cat A vs Cat B Fit-Out: What's the Difference?

If you have leased or are about to lease office space in Accra, you will hear the terms “Cat A” and “Cat B” — and the difference between them decides what you are paying for and what the landlord already provided. Misunderstanding the split is one of the most common ways a tenant ends up surprised by cost or programme. This guide explains both clearly, in the Ghana leasing context, so you know exactly what your fit-out budget needs to cover.

What Category A Fit-Out Is

Category A is the base finish a landlord or developer typically delivers to make a space lettable. It is a finished shell, ready to receive a tenant’s own layout, but it is not yet anyone’s office.

A typical Cat A delivery includes:

• Raised access floors or a finished screed
• A suspended ceiling with basic lighting
• Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning to the floor (often capped off, ready to extend)
• Basic mechanical and electrical distribution to the floor
• Finished common areas, lifts, and washrooms
• Painted walls and a blank, open floor plate

Cat A is, in effect, a clean and serviced empty space. It looks finished, but it is generic — there are no meeting rooms, no reception, no branding, no workstations, and the services stop short of where your actual layout will need them.

What Category B Fit-Out Is

Category B is everything that turns that serviced shell into your office. This is the work a fit-out specialist delivers, and it is where the tenant’s budget concentrates.

A typical Cat B scope includes:

• Partitioning — offices, meeting rooms, boardrooms, breakout spaces
• Glazed partitions, doors, and acoustic treatment
• Reception, branding, and feature finishes
• Final lighting design, small power, and data outlets to the layout
• Extending and balancing the air-conditioning to suit the partitioned spaces
• Kitchens, tea-points, and any additional plumbing
• Flooring finishes, joinery, fitted storage, and furniture coordination

Cat B is the personality and the function of the space. It is also where MEP coordination matters most — the services delivered generically in Cat A have to be reworked and extended to serve the rooms you actually create.

Who Pays for Which — and Why It Matters

In most Accra commercial leases, the landlord delivers Cat A and the tenant funds Cat B — but this is negotiable and you should never assume. The lease, the heads of terms, and any fit-out contribution from the landlord all change the picture. Some landlords offer a contribution toward Cat B; some deliver a “Cat A plus” with more services already extended.

Two things protect you here:

1. Read what Cat A actually includes. A space described as “fitted” may be bare Cat A, or it may include more. Get the specification in writing.
2. Cost your Cat B from a BoQ. Because Cat B is where your spend sits, this is exactly where a measured Bill of Quantities matters — it prices the partitions, the MEP rework, the finishes, and the furniture against your real layout, not a guessed rate. See our Fit-Out Cost & BoQ Guide.

The Coordination Trap Between Cat A and Cat B

The most expensive surprises happen at the seam between the two categories. The Cat A ceiling grid and lighting were laid out for an empty floor; your partitions now cut across them. The Cat A air-conditioning was balanced for open space; your meeting rooms change the load. The Cat A power was distributed generically; your workstations need it somewhere else.

A fit-out specialist anticipates this. We survey what the Cat A delivery actually provides, then plan the Cat B works to extend, rework, and coordinate the services so the finished office functions — not just looks finished. This is the MEP coordination that a general contractor often misses, and it is core to how we deliver an office fit-out.

How to Budget and Plan Around the Split

• Confirm the Cat A baseline in writing before you sign or before you brief a fit-out contractor.
• Brief your Cat B scope fully — room mix, finish level, MEP, furniture — so nothing is left out of the budget.
• Get a BoQ for Cat B, measured against your layout and the actual Cat A starting point.
• Plan the programme around your lease and opening date — the date your space must be ready is the date the fit-out is built toward.

Start Your Cat B the Right Way

Installers Ghana has delivered Category B fit-outs across Accra since 1988 — partitions, finishes, MEP coordination, joinery, and furniture, priced from a quantity-surveyor BoQ and built to programme. We survey the Cat A starting point first, so the budget and the date are both real. Start with our fit-out contractors in Accra.

Request a scope and BoQ: +233 23 063 0032.