What is a Retail Leasing Expert?

A retail leasing expert is someone with strong retail property market knowledge and the ability to adopt this knowledge in order to maximise returns for their retail client.

Extensive industry knowledge as well as a clear understanding of the individual client’s retail vision, including which market the retailer is trying to capture will allow a leasing expert to secure the right location at a sustainable rent with incentives so that a healthy profit can be achieved.

A retail leasing expert needs to understand how to put together a proper leasing strategy and can bring the following to the table:

• An estimate of retail sales and footfall counts to a site, which are the primary barometers of measurement.
• A credible expert will have an extensive network within each retail environment and will have information on other businesses for comparative research.
• They will assist in defining who is the customer in your core market (demographics and psychographics), what are their needs and what is their spending power.
• Information is king, with the most important information encompassing rents, performance data of other tenants in an environment, average spend, customer traffic flow etc
• They will assist in defining who are your primary competitors, how are they positioned, what are the strengths and weaknesses of their location and current performance.

Credible leasing experts will have access to data that will also provide:

• Current sales – by centre, by floor level, by merchandise category.
• Rent /sales ratios – by centre, by floor level, by merchandise category
• Current rent – how does it compare to the market?  (this will require a market analysis)
• Strength and balance of the tenancy mix – merchandise category percentages represented, quality of the anchors, appropriateness of store /unit sizes and configurations (a proper mix analysis is required)
• Due diligence and advice on lease documentation including any hidden trap door clauses with commercial interpretation which can be different to legal interpretation.
• Design and delivery: clients can have their program of works ambushed but a credible leasing expert will provide assistance through this process all the way to store opening.

I am always asked by people what it is we do at LeaseWise. The detail referred to in this article describes the parameters we work with but I can simplify it even further. We are in the business of wealth creation and wealth preservation and our domain is retail.