Were Are Not The Only Ones Concerned About Rents.

The Australian Retailers Association recently held a conference concerning the imbalance between landlords and tenants in rent negotiations. ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said the main theme coming out of the discussion was around the pressure retailers in shopping centres faced from rental costs, which were not determined based on real market valuations, retail turnover or current economic conditions.

“Reforms such as a code of conduct and third party reporting of turnovers would go some way towards making the process fairer and more transparent, as well as ensure retailers are able to balance the cost of doing business with keeping their doors open,” he said.  cont'd

“One of the major hurdles for retailers is a retail tenancy framework which skews lease negotiations in favour of landlords and drives up rental costs for retailers who ultimately have to pass these on to the consumer.”

“In some cases, smaller retailers have only escaped unnecessary and inflated costs because they have questioned their invoices.”

“Tenancy needs to be an issue for the Federal Government if retailers are to remain operational and compete in a global environment.”