Six factors driving your office rent through the roof

Revealed

Business owners are being urged to get clued up on what could be driving their office rent through the roof so they can avoid having to pay sky-high rates unnecessarily.

The commercial property experts at LondonOffices.com have revealed six key factors,besides size and location, that contribute to an office’s rental value to help businesses avoid paying unnecessary rates.

1. Your office’s position in the building
If you’re lucky enough to work on one of the top floors in a high storey building – one which boasts panoramic views of your surroundings – you could be paying a considerable amount more than if you took an office on the lower floors.

An office at the front of a building that has access to lots of natural light will also carry a much higher premium than a rear facing office, especially compared to internal offices with no windows.

2. Facilities
If your office is in a building that boasts access to lots of high-quality breakout space, meeting rooms or even a luxury roof terrace, you’ll obviously be paying will be more than one without. If you’re trying to reign in your finances a little, you should perhaps consider whether these added extras are really necessary to the functionality of your business.

3. IT infrastructure
It’s something that a lot of business owners don’t think about unless they operate within the IT supply industries, but office buildings with top notch IT infrastructure will demand a premium. Some buildings will even have 10 gig lines, backup lines and backups to the backups! These will be more expensive than a building with basic spec IT.

4. Quality of the space
Simply the quality of the space will also have a big impact on rental value. A newly refurbished building with the best fit out and new aircon will always be a step up in price compared to a neighbouring 1970’s building that is starting to become dated.

5. Length of contract
If you are in a position to be able to commit to a 12 or 24-month contract, this would typically place you in a much stronger position to negotiate lower rents than if you were looking for a shorter term, or a rolling contract.

6. Occupancy of the building
New buildings with lower occupancy levels will typically have more scope for negotiation than a building that is at a higher occupancy.

Alex Williamson, Corporate Account Director at LondonOffices.com, said: “Many business people come to us with a very loose brief when it comes to finding a new home for their business. They know that the size and location of a property will play a significant role in deciding its rental value, but many fail to realise that even an office’s position in the building will be a huge deciding factor too.

“This information will hopefully give business owners a heads up, so they know what to expect and what to budget for when it comes to relocating or moving into serviced offices for the first time.”