Landlords and Tenants take note! The time has come to “Love the one you are with”!
In an age when almost everything is seen as short term and disposable, the time has come to rethink the way we look at our relationships and specifically the relationship between landlords and tenants.
For too long now it has been all too common for there to be a very adversarial and conflict filled marriage between landlords and tenants when it comes to commercial real estate which time and time again has led to unnecessary and messy (commercial) divorce.
If the pandemic, in state of contraction (and possible expansion…), has taught us anything its that as a society, regardless of where you believe you fit into the pecking order, we all need each other and when something on a large scale like COVID-19 happens there is almost no escaping the effect. Sure, you might not catch the illness but there is still no escaping the broader economic and social impact of the virus.
For the tenants, relocations for relocations sake are expensive! New fit outs, when there was really nothing wrong with the old offices; moving and make good costs, when it costs you nothing to stay where you are; the legal expense of having leases reviewed and negotiated, when renewing your current lease costs you a fraction of what a new premises costs. That is a lot of costs even before taking into account the impact on branding and customer disruption associated with a relocation.
For the landlords, if your property is vacant or becomes vacant the costs are similarly undesirable. Months or years of Lost rent, advertising for a new tenant, rent free periods once a tenant is located, lease incentive payments, legal fees. The true costs are almost immeasurable.
Now there will be times when businesses need to leave due to expansion or contraction, change of direction or retirement of the business owner. In these circumstances a great leasing strategy and hard work by your leasing and management team should limit the downside of vacancy. With that said, a tenant leaving or being given notice to leave because of some form of disagreement or lack of understanding between landlord and tenant is something that should be avoided and can be with some frequent yet simple communication, respect and understanding.
If you are a commercial property owner or business owner leasing premises this is an incredible opportunity for you to build a great and lasting relationship with your tenant/landlord and it might be much simpler than you think. “Loving the one you’re with” doesn’t mean candle lit dinners for the tenant and landlord, nor one serenading the other, it can be as uncomplex as asking some simple questions regardless of which side of the equation you find yourself on.
“How’s Business?”
“What challenges are you facing and is there any way we can work together that might help?”
Neither party should see this as a guarantee that the other will do all they have asked or suggested but what it will provide is an open and supportive environment for each to get a better understanding of the others perspective. This can only be helpful in creating solutions to what ever problems are being faced throughout the relationship.
A great asset management team is also key to this because consistency and frequency of communication is one of the keys to high quality relationships. Open and frequent communication with tenants as well as the landlord has always been one of the core values for PURE and the retention results speak for themselves.
The often overlooked reality is that the landlord and tenant have a deeply vested interest in the success of each other’s business so the more the two work together, the brighter and more prosperous the future will be for both.
Now more than ever, understanding the true value of what you have got should be the focus, so get out there and find a way to press the reset button, find the romance and “Love the one your with”
Watch Pure’s Director Gavan Reynolds explain in this Video Podcast