How Financial Analysis Plays a Part in Office Lease Transactions

chicago office space listingsCommercial office space leasing consideration is a bit more in-depth than renting a residential property, for example. When leasing a home, apartment or condo, you know how much the rent costs and whether or not you will be able to afford it. For commercial office space leasing, the decision-making process is a bit more time consuming. In order to ensure that you are renewing your lease at the right location at the right cost or deciding to move your office space to a new locale to save money, you want to complete a full financial analysis to make sure that the leasing decision you make is the right one.

What a Financial Analysis Accomplishes

A financial analysis is the answer to determining what your overall cost will be to lease a commercial office space. Far from simply considering annual lease amount, there are many other factors to review in order to ascertain that the lease is a financially responsible move for you and your company to make. In addition to looking at the base rental price, you must consider factors such as increases in operating expenses, caps on operating expenses, reduced rent periods, contributions by the landlord, parking fees and more. By looking into all of these added factors, you can make the proper determination as to whether renewing your lease or moving elsewhere is the right decision to make.

How to Perform a Complete Financial Analysis

When starting the financial analysis process, you’re going to want a little help with the calculations. Fortunately, there are programs for just this type of analysis. Some of the popular financial analysis help comes in the form of ProCalc, LeaseMatrix and more. By using these programs, you can get a correct number, as well as get the job done with ease. When performing a financial analysis, you’ll be considering the various features listed above, such as base rental payments, operating expenses and all other costs and considerations which will provide you with a final determination as to whether or not your leasing arrangement will be of benefit to you and your company.

What to Do with the Financial Analysis Results

When the tabulations are complete, the final step is knowing what to do with the results. You want to look at the bottom line and determine if this number will fit within your budget or not. It will be helpful in making the decision whether to stay and renew your commercial office space lease or lease an office at a new location.

If you have a tenant representative, your decision will be made much more easily. This advisor will go through the numbers with you and help you to decide which leasing option will benefit you the best. Making the right decision is a matter of going through the financial analysis, step-by-step, and figuring out whether it pays to stay in your current office space and renew your lease or move on to a new location which will be more cost-effective and better for your company overall.