This is one of the most difficult and longest stages of the office space rental process. Office space owners have a wide range of incentives to persuade potential tenants to choose their property, but they also frequently impose tough conditions, therefore whether the tenant gets the best possible conditions depends heavily on the negotiating skills and knowledge of the market.
One of the most popular forms of incentive are rent free months, i.e. periodic rent reductions by a certain percentage. For comparative purposes, we always convert this into full months, but that does not mean that after signing an agreement we will not pay anything for, say, half a year. Those months are always spread over the rental period, so as to balance out the cash flow.
The second most important element is the budget that the owner of the property wants to allocate to the conversion of your space. The budget is converted based on the EUR amount per square metre. With this amount, you are now able to calculate how much of your own funds will have to be spent on finishing the office.
After all discounts are taken into account, with the help of an intermediary or available calculators, you can calculate the effective rent for the different office space. By comparing individual rent rates, you can evaluate the financial attractiveness of selected offers.
Rental terms negotiation is an art - the better you are prepared, the better terms you will be able to secure.