Internal rents have found wide-spread use lately in the administration of public buildings. In this empirical study problems connected with internal rents are discussed based on a number of cases in municipalities, counties and other public organizations. The risk for suboptimization, often caused by too high rents in times of abundant space, is pointed out.

Rents strictly based on costs according to traditional accounting principles tend to lead to over-pricing causing the users to leave space vacant, without external demand for space.

Internal rents should be not be seen as tools to recover capital costs, but as tools for more effective use of space. Rents should be adapted to type of building, market situation and the internal organization.

The report contains a preliminary checklist for the manager to follow. Also, questions for further studies are discussed.