As the roles were announced for our new government this morning, I was reflecting about what actions could be most useful for the property leasing market.

It is clear there is going to be a role for ACT leader Rodney Hide to focus on how to streamline bureaucracies and make life easier for the small to medium business.

As Minister for Local Government I am sure he will be looking hard for ways that councils can more efficiently deal with resource consents, and make life easier for small to medium businesses. Current processes can be very slow, complex and costly.

The thing is, resource consents, building permits and the myriad regulations that need to be adhered to by both landlord and tenant in commercial spaces take an enormous amount of time, money and effort to deal with.

Now I am not an advocate of getting rid of regulations that ensure we have good standards in our buildings (we can never forget the disasters of leaky buildings!), but there are many opportunities for both councils and central government to be more flexible in the way they administer their regulations.

They can be more flexible on two main fronts. One is to show some leniency, when times are tough, over payment schedules for rates and other costs. The other is to show flexibility if a building owner and tenant are looking for new alternatives to manage and utilise a commercial lease space.

As landlords and commercial tenants strive for ways to respond to the rapidly changing economic climate, there will be interest in creative ways to renovate and convert commercial spaces to match demand. So retail may change to office, apartment to retail or office etc; shifting where the demand lies.

If councils and the government had structures in place that were flexible so businesses could respond quickly to demand, then that would make life a whole lot easier. And who knows, it might just be the difference for a business facing a range of challenges to keep going.

Leave a reply and share your thoughts on how local and central government could become more flexible to support business, and to improve opportunities in the property lease market.

This entry was posted on Tuesday 18th November 2008 and is filed under Property Leasing. Both comments and pings are currently closed.