What we get right for retailers

Tenant-side · Retail leasing · New Zealand

Retail Leasing: The right retail site, on the right terms.

Your premises should pull customers in, not quietly eat your margin. We make sure they do both.

We act for retail tenants across New Zealand, never for landlords. From finding the site to negotiating the lease, managing it, and exiting when the time comes, we make sure your property decisions support the business instead of draining it.

20 years

Securing Retail Sites And Leases For Tenants Across NZ

High street to mall

Single Stores, Shopping Centres And National Rollouts

Tenant-side only

We Act For You, Never The Landlord Or Their Agent

THE PROBLEM

Retail leasing decisions are high-risk — and usually made in a rush.

For most retailers, property is the second-largest cost in the business and one of the longest commitments you’ll ever sign. Yet the decision is often made under pressure, against a deadline, with whatever information the landlord’s agent chose to share. The site looks right, the rent looks fine, and the real cost only shows up later.

Where retail leasing quietly goes wrong:

Choosing a site on gut feel before checking the foot traffic stacks up
Comparing premises on headline rent while OPEX hides the real number
Signing rent and outgoings that outpace thin retail margins
Locking into a term you can't exit if the store underperforms
Negotiating against the landlord's agent with no one on your side

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

In retail, the wrong lease doesn't cost you once. It costs you every trading day.

Take a store on $90,000 rent that looked sharp on paper. Add an OPEX structure no one questioned and the real occupancy cost lands closer to $126,000 a year. On a retail margin, that gap can be the difference between a shop that funds your growth and one that quietly bleeds it. Over a six-year term, it’s more than $200,000 you never planned to spend.

Then there’s the cost that never reaches an invoice. A location your customers don’t pass. A lease you can’t get out of when the store stops working. A make-good bill waiting at the end. In retail, the wrong premises caps what the business can earn for years.

“Marcus saved me time and money, providing practical advice, market insight, as well as lease negotiating expertise. He levelled the playing field.”

Chrissy Conyngham

Founder, Flo & Frannkie

YOUR GUIDE

A retail property adviser who only ever acts for the tenant.

You sign a retail lease a handful of times in the life of your business. The landlords and their agents do it every day, for a living, on the other side of the table. That experience gap is exactly why so many good retailers end up in the wrong site on the wrong terms.

I’ve spent 20 years finding sites and negotiating leases for retail tenants across New Zealand, from single high-street stores to shopping-centre sites and national rollouts. I know what good foot traffic actually looks like, how to read an OPEX schedule, and where the room to move sits in a deal. I act for tenants only. Never landlords.

Experience

20 years tenant-side

Position

Tenant-side only

Retail reach

High street, mall & rollouts

Track record

Single stores to national networks

OUR APPROACH

Brief. Shortlist. Negotiate.

A clear process that turns a high-stakes retail decision into a confident one, whether you’re opening your first store, expanding, or relocating.

Brief & catchment

We start with your brand, target customer, catchment and trading numbers, and build a clear retail premises brief. That brief drives every decision after it.

Market scan & shortlist

We scan on-market, off-market and pre-listing sites, assess foot traffic, visibility and real occupancy cost, and hand you a ranked shortlist of sites that actually fit.

Negotiate & protect

We negotiate rent, incentives, fitout contributions, reviews and exit rights, so the lease you sign protects your margin and keeps your options open.

How We Help Retailers

One adviser across the full retail lease lifecycle

Most retailers only think about property at the start. But money is won and lost at every stage of the lease. We’re with you across all six.

Find retail premises

Identify and secure sites aligned with your brand, catchment and foot-traffic needs, on and off-market.

Find premises →

Negotiate the lease

Negotiate rent, incentives, fitout contributions and terms that reduce cost and protect long-term viability.

Negotiate lease →

Design, consents & fitout

Coordinate design, approvals and fitout to open on time and avoid cost overruns and delays.

Design & fitout →

Lease management

Rent reviews, renewals, OPEX reconciliations, dispute resolution and critical-date tracking, handled for you.

Lease management →

Lease restructuring

Restructure leases when rent or terms no longer match how the store is actually trading.

Lease restructuring →

Exit & relocation

Plan and manage a retail exit or relocation with minimal disruption and a clean break from the lease.

Exit & relocation →

With a tenant-side adviser on your retail lease

You choose a site that fits your brand, your customer and your numbers

You know the real occupancy cost before you sign, not after

You hold flexibility to grow, restructure or exit as trading changes

Proof

Retailers we've helped lease with confidence

Real retailers, real sites, real numbers. Each one started where you are now: needing the right premises, on the right terms.

Retail Site Selection

$376,000 saved growing Waitomo’s South Island fuel network

Off-market sites across the South Island, sourced and secured on more competitive terms than competitors, to extend a retail fuel network built over 70 years.

Shopping Centre Lease Negotiation

Prime Mall Lease Won

Shopping centre negotiation at a premium NZ mall. Secured a fitout contribution, lower accommodation costs, a fixed-percentage rent review, a lower bank guarantee and waived personal guarantees.

See all retail case studies →

Who This Is For

Built for retailers who treat property as a business decision

Whether you run a single store, a growing chain, or a franchise network, the leasing problem is the same: too many variables, too little time, and a landlord’s agent on the other side. Property isn’t your core business, but it’s one of your biggest costs and one of your longest commitments.

We work with retailers across formats and stages, from a first high-street store to shopping-centre sites and multi-site rollouts. If you’re opening, renewing, relocating, or just suspect you’re paying too much, this is built for you.

The best time to bring us in is early, before you’ve committed to a site and while the whole market is still open to you.

Fashion & apparel

Food & beverage

Health & beauty

Franchise networks

Multi-site operators

Shopping-centre tenants

Common questions

Retail leasing, answered

Aren't you just a commercial real estate agent?

No. Agents are paid by landlords to fill their buildings, so the higher the rent, the better they’ve done their job. We’re paid by you, the retailer. We never act for landlords and never take a leasing fee from them, so our only job is the site and the deal that’s right for your business.

Do you handle shopping-centre leases as well as high street?

Yes. We negotiate both. Shopping-centre leases come with their own pressures, longer documents, promotional levies, and tighter landlord control, so having someone tenant-side who knows how they work matters even more.

I've already found a site I like. Can you still help?

Yes, and this is often the best moment to bring us in. Before you commit, we assess whether the site is right for your catchment and what it will really cost over the term, while there’s still room to move on rent, incentives and terms.

We're a retailer expanding multiple sites. Do you do rollouts?

Yes. A lot of our retail work is multi-site, sourcing and negotiating across a network so every site stacks up for the operator or franchisor with consistent terms and concessions across the rollout.

How do you charge?

It depends on the scope, from a single site search or lease negotiation through to ongoing support across a portfolio. We’ll be clear about it on the first call, before you commit to anything.

Free Download

Looking at a retail site? Check this first.

Download the checklist I run before commencing any lease negotiation. The same lens that catches the costs and risks that never show up on a listing or in a landlord’s heads of agreement.Written for retailers.

Retail is one of the sectors we specialise in. We also act tenant-side for:

Making a retail leasing decision — or questioning an existing one?

Tell me what your business needs from its next site. I’ll tell you what’s out there, on-market and off, what each option will really cost, and where the room to negotiate sits. No obligation.