Investors bought a lot of the commercial property a few years ago.
Rents went up a little, but the businesses could generally work out a deal they could afford.
Once the interest on lending went up, however, those investors are being squeezed.
What was £1000/m interest on a £1500/m rental is suddenly £3000/m.
So they squeeze the businesses…Who understandably tell them it ain’t going to happen.
One of these places closed recently near me. The shop went from full trading to everything closed in under a fortnight.
The “to let” page on the local commercial lettings site said that they were “aiming to find a similar artisanal tenant”, or words to that effect.
So now it’s empty, and a for sale board is up. No doubt at some point, it’ll become our 29th phone repair shop.
(If anyone has good information on how those shops pop up, I’d be really interested. I’ve always assumed they’re in for almost nothing, on a really short contract, so the landlord doesn’t have to pay rates)
I would dearly love for the council to buy up commercial property, and give good deals to shops that add to a town.
I don’t think you’re wrong in a sense, but everyone has a phone and phones break all the time. Some of those places will do the job cheaper and quicker, even same day. And first party repairs can be either extortionate (Apple) or laughable/impossible/non-existent (Google, Samsung etc.)
It’s been getting ridiculous around here.
Investors bought a lot of the commercial property a few years ago.
Rents went up a little, but the businesses could generally work out a deal they could afford.
Once the interest on lending went up, however, those investors are being squeezed.
What was £1000/m interest on a £1500/m rental is suddenly £3000/m. So they squeeze the businesses…Who understandably tell them it ain’t going to happen.
One of these places closed recently near me. The shop went from full trading to everything closed in under a fortnight.
The “to let” page on the local commercial lettings site said that they were “aiming to find a similar artisanal tenant”, or words to that effect.
So now it’s empty, and a for sale board is up. No doubt at some point, it’ll become our 29th phone repair shop.
(If anyone has good information on how those shops pop up, I’d be really interested. I’ve always assumed they’re in for almost nothing, on a really short contract, so the landlord doesn’t have to pay rates)
I would dearly love for the council to buy up commercial property, and give good deals to shops that add to a town.
I assume those janky phone /electronics repair places are money laundering.
Yeah that’s my take on most of these as well.
I don’t think you’re wrong in a sense, but everyone has a phone and phones break all the time. Some of those places will do the job cheaper and quicker, even same day. And first party repairs can be either extortionate (Apple) or laughable/impossible/non-existent (Google, Samsung etc.)
Agreed, but there’s some shops in my town (HCOL area) and there’s never a soul in there. Just makes you wonder how they are paying the sky high rent.