How do you lease commercial property yourself?

Should you lease your commercial property yourself or use an agent?

Agents remain a good option, and for many owners the right one. A good leasing agent brings current rental evidence, a network of tenant-side agents, a database of active requirements, and experience negotiating terms you may only see once every few years. They are paid a leasing fee, usually calculated as a share of the first year's rent or of the total lease value, and for a large or complex asset that fee is often money well spent.

Leasing it yourself makes sense when you own one or a handful of properties, know the local market, and can answer enquiries and show the space within a day or two. It also suits landlords with an in-house leasing or asset management team who already handle renewals and want more control over who is approached and how. The trade-off is time: every task an agent would do becomes yours.

Many owners do both. They appoint an agent for listings and negotiation and run their own direct outreach alongside. If you do, read the agency agreement first. A sole or exclusive agency usually entitles the agent to a fee on any lease signed during the term, whoever found the tenant, so agree up front how tenants you introduce are treated.

What should you do before you market the space?

Set the price first. Gather asking and, where you can, achieved rents for comparable space nearby, and be clear whether your figure is gross or net of outgoings. Decide your incentive position at the same time, because rent-free months and fit-out contributions are part of the real price and tenants will ask about them in the first conversation.

Then prepare the space. Clean it, fix lighting and obvious defects, and make sure services such as air conditioning, power and water work on a viewing. Get the floor area measured, take good photos, and produce a floor plan. Empty space photographed well leases better than space shown with the previous tenant's leftovers.

Finally, write a one or two page information pack: address, floor area, rent and outgoings, permitted use or zoning, parking, power and access, availability date, and the lease term you will accept. Decide your non-negotiables now, such as minimum term, rent review method, security deposit or bank guarantee, and make-good obligations, so you can answer quickly when an enquiry arrives.

Where should you list a commercial property for lease?

List it on the main commercial portal for your country: LoopNet or Crexi in the United States, realcommercial.com.au or commercialrealestate.com.au in Australia, Rightmove Commercial in the United Kingdom, TradeMe Property in New Zealand. Put a clear signboard on the property with the floor area and a phone number, and add the listing to your own website if you have one.

These channels are worth having because they catch businesses and tenant-side agents that are already searching. Their limit, covered in vacancy marketing beyond listing portals, is that they only catch those businesses. A firm that will need space in six months, or that would move for the right building but has not started a search, never sees a portal listing. That is why the next step matters more than the listing itself.

How do you find tenants who are not searching yet?

Contact them directly. Build a list of businesses whose size and use fit the space, starting with the ones around the property, which already have staff and customers in the area, and then widening to similar operations across the city. For each business, find the person who decides on premises: the owner or managing director at a small firm, the operations, property or finance lead at a larger one. Generic info@ addresses rarely reach them.

Put the businesses showing signs of needing space at the top of the list: hiring, new contracts, new sites, funding, or a lease coming to an end. Write each one a short email that says why this building suits them, with the address, size and availability, and follow up once or twice over the next two weeks. Send it from your own inbox so replies come straight to you.

Finding those businesses by hand is the slowest step of direct-to-occupier leasing, and it is the step The Campaign takes over. Scayled builds the list of businesses most likely to lease your property, around it and across the market, finds and checks the decision-maker at each, flags the ones showing signs of needing space, and writes every email. Focused covers the strongest 100 to 150 businesses from US$449 in about three working days, Full covers 250 to 350 for US$749 in about five, and you either send the emails yourself or add We Send It For You for US$299.

How do you handle enquiries, viewings and negotiation?

Reply to every enquiry the same day. Ask the qualifying questions early: how much space they need, what they will use it for, when they need to move, what they pay now, and when their current lease ends. Book a viewing quickly and be on time with the information pack in hand.

Before you agree terms, check the tenant. Ask for recent financial statements or trading history, references from a previous landlord, and decide whether you need a personal guarantee, bank guarantee or larger deposit. A strong covenant on slightly lower rent is often worth more than a weak one at full asking rent.

Agree heads of terms, also called a letter of intent, covering rent, term, options, rent reviews, incentives, outgoings, permitted use, fit-out and make-good. Then have a solicitor draft the lease from those terms. Some property types, notably retail in several Australian states, are covered by specific leasing legislation with disclosure requirements, so check what applies before you sign.

How long does it take and what does it cost to lease it yourself?

Preparation usually takes a week or two. Marketing and outreach run for weeks to a few months depending on the property, the market and the price. Negotiation and legal work commonly add several more weeks, and a tenant fit-out can add more before rent starts. Direct outreach shortens the middle stage because conversations start in the first week rather than waiting for enquiries.

Your direct costs are portal listing fees, a signboard, photography, legal fees for the lease and any incentive you offer. Compare those with the agent's fee and with what each empty month costs you: lost rent plus the holding costs you cannot recover, such as rates, insurance, utilities and maintenance. Spending a little to reach the right businesses sooner is usually cheap next to one more month of vacancy.