Retail Property insight
Charities come in all shapes and sizes; each have their own different property needs but satisfying their own property requirements is not easy.
Background
Today many charities are currently looking to expand their retail estate or change the locations of some of their shops. Large retail units are now very popular with charities, often called superstores or donation centres and it can be even more difficult to find the ideal sites than traditional charity retail sites.
Even the best traditional retail sites can be hard to find unfortunately, therefore what most charities are discovering is that finding the ideal new retail property can be very challenging. This often results in charities spending a considerable amount of time searching and looking at properties. This can divert attention from the ‘day job’ and it is no surprise because most of the best retail properties are taken before they are marketed.
Property market insight
Many landlords don’t initially market their property or use agents when one of their properties becomes available instead, they inform their contacts, who work with many retailers. These contacts have first choice of the most desirable units but it means that they get snapped up by the contacts clients before they are visible to the wider market. This makes most charities at a disadvantage when searching for the best new retail sites as most get snapped up before they even reach the market.
Rent free properties insight
There are different types of retail properties available on a rent-free short-term lease. These are some of the most popular reasons:
- A shop in a possible redevelopment area.
- Hard to let shops.
- Wanting to have no business rates liability for their vacant retail property.
However, these rent free properties are not openly marketed so difficult to find.
New property additional important elements
Finding the ideal shop is only the start of the process. These are the steps required to complete before opening a new shop.
Lease terms: Obtaining the best terms on a commercial lease requires good knowledge of the current market and this is normally outside of the expertise of the charity. There are some exceptional deals available for some retail sites. Skyline can assist you obtain the best lease terms.
Board Agreement: Producing a board report for approval with supporting financial documentation is often time consuming and difficult. It’s very important to ensure every potential new site will contribute positively and this requires financial modelling. Skyline can produce the financial modelling for the board paper.
Shop design: It is expensive to use a specialist shop fitting company to do the design and they are often not experts in designing in best charity retail practice layouts. A good shop layout can greatly influence the customer journey and the sales performance. Skyline can assist this process and produce the most effective shop layout for optimising sales.
Shop fit out: It is expensive to use a specialist shop fitting company. The Skyline designed shop layout plan with fittings required allows the project to go out to tender or be completed internally.
Project management: Managing a new shop opening is a time-consuming project which can be distracting. Skyline can do the project management to reduce distractions and to ensure the shop opens to an agreed timescale.
Retail property outsourcing
Many charities are now outsourcing some or all of their property search as well as some additional services.
Whether you are looking for a permanent shop or pop-up shop our specialist approach qualifies us as the industry experts in sourcing property, therefore enabling you to get the retail properties you require quicker. Contact us for more information.
