Lease acquisitions
Lease acquisitions, in essence, are the processes by which businesses obtain rights to use assets belonging to others without the need to purchase them outright. These assets can be real estate, equipment, or mineral rights. We specialize in commercial property, with a particular focus on the office and industrial/warehouse sectors.
In today's volatile business environment, the ability to identify the right property, in the right location and agree a lease on the best commercial and financial terms can underpin the success of your business over the lease period.
If you are considering finding a new property to accommodate expansion or contraction in your business, please feel free to contact us to discuss the best way forward.
Making sure you get lease acquisition right
There are some fundamental considerations when acquiring a new property, which you are going to hold on a lease, such as:
- What do you need?: Property is business equipment, just like any other equipment you use in your business whether that is a crane, a laptop, a microchip or anything else. It is often large, can be expensive and is illiquid, so you need to get it right, as mistakes can be expensive to rectify. This means consideration of customer and staff accessibility to drive/take public transport to the location, consideration of use and functionality to drive size and specification and consideration of business longevity to determine lease length. All these combined help ensure the property you select will satisfy your business drivers and objectives, as well as defining what you are trying to identify. Finally, you need to consider your budget to ensure your perfect property is affordable.
- Market Search: In order to identity your perfect property, based on your business need, you need to search the market, identify buildings to view, consider which building(s) meet your needs and know how to shortlist options so you can work with a manageable list of options.
- Seeking Proposals from Landlords: Once you have identified a short list of options, you need to know the terms upon which the landlord is willing to agree a lease, so getting a proposal from each of your shortlisted options for consideration and comparison is important. The proposal will come in the form of “heads of terms”, which, once agreed, will form the basis of the terms upon which the lease will be drafted. The heads of terms for your shortlisted options should be negotiated with each landlord, resulting in final terms from which you can clearly see the annual costs and commercial terms for the full duration of the lease. There should then be a sense check to ensure the options identified suit all the needs of the business, before making a final decision to agree terms.
- Diligence: Before agreeing a new lease, consideration needs to be given to the liabilities to which you will be bound throughout the lease duration. As such, you may require a specialist survey such as fabric, mechanical/electrical or structural advice, which can help mitigate or cap your lease liabilities. MAPC will advise on the need for any specialist advice to ensure your interests are fully protected and issues identified.
- Lease Documentation: once heads of terms are agreed, these are passed to the respective lawyers to ensure the documentation is in place for the lease agreement. In addition to the lease, you will need to consider fitting out, for which statutory and landlord’s consent will be required. We would always advise obtaining landlord’s consent to fit out before agreement of the lease. In addition to fitting out, consideration of connectivity and fibre availability is an issue which requires careful consideration and planning.
Experts in Lease Acquisitions
Mark Allan Property Consultants (MAPC) have been providing well considered, strategic, pragmatic and relevant property advice since our establishment in 2014.
Prior to 2014, Mark Allan held Partner/Director level positions for 15 years in some of the biggest property consultancy/Chartered Surveying businesses in the world, acting for some of the largest global companies, resolving complex real estate issues, leading teams providing similar services to those offered by MAPC and again concentrating on office and industrial leased properties across the UK.
But don't just take our word for it. Our clients' testimonials add some colour to our service offering and confirm our dedication, expertise, and results-driven approach.
Why use MAPC to acquire your lease?
When it comes to securing the best lease terms on your perfect property to support your business success, it is essential to work with a trusted and experienced property consultant/Chartered Surveyor.
The advantages of partnering with Mark Allan Property Consultants include:
- Conflict free: We do not work with landlords, so we never have conflicts of interest
- Experience: We have been acquiring leases for office and industrial tenants in numerous locations, dealing with various properties for decades. So, there is not much we have not seen before nor issues we have been unable to resolve.
- Tailored solutions: Every business is unique. We provide solutions tailored to your specific needs, reporting and advising in the way that suits you best, allowing you to focus on your day job, rather than real estate
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
“Mark has worked with Edrington Group for nearly 20 years in which time he has provided a full range of property advice across the UK, Europe, Middle East, US and Asia. This has involved him acquiring and re-gearing leases for our various offices, managing fit outs, resolving rent reviews and generally doing everything and anything required for our leased offices. ”
Chris Hendry, Head of Indirect Procurement, Edrington Group
"Mark has supported us with managing our UK and Nordics depot and office property portfolio for circa 20 years. He has interacted seamlessly with our external legal advisers and colleagues at all levels and functions across our business to help us achieve best possible outcomes."
Louise Harrison, Head of Legal, Aggreko Europe North
“Mark helped us succeed in effecting sequential moves of offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast; each against a background of challenging timescales, an uncertain space market and a re-defining of the office environment. His market awareness, commercially minded outlook and the ability to support across a number of specialisms undoubtedly contributed to us achieving that efficiently and importantly, whilst we maintained business as usual on behalf of our Clients.”
Scott Ewing, Regional Director, Gleeds
“We have been working with Mark for more than 20 years. During that time he has helped us negotiate initial office leases in Glasgow, Liverpool and Aberdeen, renegotiate office leases, completed rent reviews, carried out market analysis studies to assist us when looking for alternative locations, coordinated dilapidation negotiations and, also, managed a recent office refurbishment for us.”
Eddie McDermott, Finance Director, V Ships UK Ltd
“Mark has worked closely with our business for over 20 years, having been involved with everything to do with various office leases, across various locations, as we have moved through the growth and contraction phases of business cycles. We find he has been an excellent business partner and is always able to give sound advice, provide a useful sounding board as we decide how to arrange our various leases, before delivering what the business needs. ”
Al Arnot, Finance Director, Concept Systems Ltd
"We have worked with Mark for more than 5 years, since he was
introduced to us by a trusted adviser. We have multiple offices, each
with different issues and needs. Mark understands our business really
well and has the expertise and experience we need to advise us on all
aspects of our tenancies.
We regularly refer Mark to our clients."
David Smith, Managing Partner, Henderson Loggie
"We asked MAPC to assist us in moving from a 3-storey, compartmentalised office into a single open plan unit on the edge of Edinburgh city centre, with the opportunity to grow or shrink as required. Mark managed to satisfy all our objectives with finding the new office. In addition, he introduced us to a designer for our fit out and managed the whole project, which included procuring a contractor and other consultants to help design and build what we needed."
David Miller, Managing Director, Alpha Data
"I have known Mark in a professional capacity for a number of years,
most recently working with him on a complex rent review case, where he
was directly advising a corporate client.
Mark's knowledge of
the commercial property market is extensive across all market sectors
and I would highly recommend him for all lease advisory work,
particularly rent reviews, lease renewals and lease restructuring, where
you may be aiming to add value to existing properties or portfolios."
Eric Thomson, Thomson Property Consultants Limited
"I have worked with Mark for seven years; simply, I would not attempt a deal without his knowledge, insight and intelligence. Mark has your back."
Neil McCallum, Managing Director, Critiqom
"Mark has provided full occupier services to every business that I have been associated with- his ability to report efficiently on niche markets providing diligent, conscientious and professional advice in the most thorough manner, makes decision making more informed and painless. His contacts and specialist knowledge are extensive and lead to an ‘over and above’ service."
Joseph Madden, Director, PMP
"Mark has worked with CDN through several reincarnations providing advice primarily on rent reviews, but also considering potential relocation options. He has good knowledge of the property market, is technically very good, continually keeps us up to date and is a tenacious negotiator, who has always delivered good results for us. We are pleased to have him as part of our wider team and would have no hesitation in recommending him to others."
Gayle Watson, Chief Executive, Scottish Colleges.
"I have worked with Mark for a number of years, where he has acquired (sometimes substantial) offices for us, re-geared leases and undertaken rent reviews in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Newcastle. Despite various challenges arising, he has provided good advice, with good knowledge of the markets, and always been on hand to resolve problems. I have been impressed with his service getting the best deal possible, have enjoyed working with him and am happy to recommend his service to others."
Joe Hannon, Head of Real Estate Services, AMEC Foster Wheeler plc