A Perfect Leasing Solution in Commercial Real Estate Today

In these changing economic times, you need a perfect leasing strategy to keep the rental income for the commercial or retail property solid and stable.  What you do not want today is the threat of higher property vacancies and pressures from competing properties.

Your property’s gross income should be optimised, and expenditures should be well controlled within averages relative to the location and property type. That is the focus for leasing agents today, and it is the best approach and service they can offer their landlord clients.

Perfect Lease Planning

So, how do you create this perfect property leasing system or strategy?  Here are some ideas to help you:

1: Work ahead and Plan Lead Times

Establish a lead time of 9 to 12 months so that tenants who are leaving the property can be replaced. The existing leases will have critical dates that relate to the end of the lease or the exercise of an option for a further term. If you stay close to your tenants, you will soon know the ones who want to move and those who want to stay. Negotiate early with tenants who are staying in the property.

2: Segment Your Tenants and Properties

Split your tenants into high-quality and low-quality groups.  Over time, you should replace the low-quality tenants with better-quality ones.  What constitutes an excellent tenant to you is subjective and may have much to do with the landlord, the property and the tenant mix.  Set your rules regarding tenant selection and work to the rules.  That strategy can be part of your annual business plan for the property.

3: Create Tenant Contact Systems

Create a system of contact where all the local businesses that could be suitable for your property are contacted frequently to see their needs in property occupancy.  If you believe they could be a good tenant for your asset, then time and patience may allow the tenant movement to occur.  The point here is that you must be in contact frequently to create the trust and relationship that will allow a lease to be negotiated and established.

4: Create Tenant Retention Plans

Create a tenant retention plan for your property that strengthens the relationships with the good-quality tenants you have now.  Other agents will be chasing your tenants, so ensure you have solid leases, attractive rents, and a well-maintained property.  Please do not give your good tenants any reason to move (unless you don’t want them anymore).

5: Watch and Work with Anchor Tenants

Stay close to your anchor tenants, as they are critical to the function of your property.  Fortunately, most anchor tenants are locked into long leases with clauses that give you some reasonable lead time to replace them.

6: Customer-focused Tenant Clusters

Understand the clusters of tenants and how they function within each other in your property.  Clusters of tenants can improve your customer offering and market rental.  When it comes to retail property and shopping centres, this fact is significant.  You may have 4 or 5 clusters of tenants that are important to your property.

7: Quality Tenants and Choices for Customers

Look for tenants who will add quality to the property. To do this effectively, make sure that you are watching all competing properties locally and find out when the leases within each property are up for renewal or expiry. Over time, you can provide competitive lease offers to the key tenants in other properties in an effort to attract them to your property.

Conclusion About Leasing Skills

A perfect lease strategy is not complicated; it is just common sense to work with a set of rules that can guide you and your tenant’s choices.