Retail Rent Review
Retail rent review turns on zoning and on honest evidence. A shop is valued in Zone A terms — the front zone carrying the highest value, halving back — with allowances for frontage, depth, shape, masking and ancillary accommodation. Get the zoning wrong and every subsequent argument is built on sand.
Zoning in practice
Standard zone depth is usually 6.1 metres (20 feet) on the high street, though schemes and some locations adopt different conventions. Return frontage, corner positions, irregular shapes, internal steps and columns all require judgement rather than arithmetic — which is where most disputed valuations diverge.
Devaluing the landlord's comparables
A headline rent agreed with twelve months' rent free, a £150,000 contribution and a tenant break at year five is not the same rent as a clean deal at the same figure. Every comparable must be devalued to an effective rent on consistent assumptions before it can be compared at all.
The trading reality
Vacancy rates, scheme footfall, the loss of an anchor, rental auction activity and the pipeline of competing space all bear on open market rent. Evidence of what the pitch can actually sustain is persuasive with arbitrators and experts alike, and I use it routinely.
Common questions
- What is Zone A rent?
- The rent per square metre or foot attributed to the front zone of a shop, from which the value of the remaining zones is derived by halving back. It is the standard currency for comparing retail units.
- Can falling footfall reduce my rent at review?
- It can, where the lease permits a downward review or where the evidence shows open market rents on the pitch have fallen below your passing rent. With an upward-only clause the passing rent remains the floor, but strong evidence can hold the review at nil increase.
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Chris McGarrigle MRICS, chartered since 1989, acting for occupiers across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
chris@mcgarrigle.comRelated guides
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