As the company I work for expands, we have to start looking into either renting a second building in close proximity to the current one, rent a larger area, or perhaps look into purchasing commercial space. How does one decide which option would be best for the company?

Its an interesting question. I'm a fan of renting, why tie yourself to a fixed premises, capital outlay, maintainace etc.

The rent becomes a monthly fixed cost, all the pressure is on the landlord and in the current climate, you can pick and choose your premises and drive a bargain.

Then theres always the flexibility, you upsize or downsize, you can find premises to suit.

Guess theory falls flat for manafacturing, maybe I'd think differently if I needed a factory

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Steve

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no brainer, renting all the way

why commit to such a massive outlay, business has to be flexible. The likes of big boys like IBM recently dumped loads of real estate, and now rent the same properties back.

Owning the shop is vanity and false economy.

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Have to agree with renting, especially if the business is still finding its feet. All monthly bills are fixed, usually for a minimum of 12months but with things as they are you should be able to fix for a longer period and even drive down the asking price a touch.

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Clive

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some of you boys need to make your mind up your on the renting band wagon 1 day and the divine light of owning the other.


I personaly see renting in the 1st 3 years of trading as the way to go then I would consider purchasing post 3 years.

if you have a business that needs to operate out of premises then consider the lack of outlay in rent during a recession. that is as long as you own the site lock stock of course

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Own home, then own it.

Business, keep it flexible and rent.

So post 3 years you know how big your business will grow to, and you can scale your offices, which means you need to buy somewhere which is too big to start with.

Unless you sub let, which then introduces its own headaches. For an admin based office business, I'd rent. But could see the advantages of owning if I was manafacturing.

Mind made up, so put that in yer pipe.....

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Steve

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I guess that puts my company in an interesting position. We have both a research and development department and a small manufactering section, but a lot of our building is also offices and cubicles. I suppose future growth of the company is an important thing to consider; it's a lot easier and cheaper to just rent a larger building when one becomes too small than to pay for additions to an owned building.