"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
Wise words...

Normal people (particularly ones who have at some point been tenants) at
least have a basic understanding of the domestic market - what's
expected, "would I live there" and rental rates (easily checked by a
rummage on Zoopla etc).

Vetting new tenants is a fairly well understood process as is dealing
with them when they default (acknowledged that sometimes this is not
always easy, back to good vetting in the first place).

I would not have a clue about commercial[1] - except that I see a lot of
commercial property sit empty for long periods.

Yes why does that happen?, we were looking at a unit in Cambridge around
8 years ago for a customer only problem was it was too large.

Its still empty and still up for letting..



It happens because commercial landlords are often large property companies,
who are greedy opportunists. Many terraces of shops, will have been built by
such property companies, so the cost of owning them is minimal, and they
don't care that they can sit on them with them being empty, until someone
comes along with enough of a desire, and the cash available, to occupy one.
The unit that we are currently in, had stood empty for several years before
we took it. One of the main problems with getting people to take commercial
property on rent, is the take-the-**** way that business rates are
calculated. They often come to as much as - if not more than - the rent,
effectively making your rent double what it appears to be.

Commercial landlords are a law unto themselves. Whereas when there is a
recession, the rest of us have to adjust our prices to continue to get
business, these people do no such thing. Commercial rents never go down,
only up, and as the rateable value is based on the market rent value, so do
the rates, all of which make it difficult for businesses - particularly new
start-ups - to satisfy the costs involved

Arfa



[1] Perhaps shops. They might be OK. But again, many can sit empty for
long periods and shops almost always want to remodel and fit upon moving
in, a problem domestic tenants don't raise.




--
Tony Sayer