Choosing your business premises

  • Lists of pros and cons to guide you
  • Easy at-a-glance layout
  • Simplifies a big decision

This handy guide to choosing your business premises will help you to decide whether you are best off buying, renting, taking a temporary licence of business premises (eg some desks in a shared office space) or setting up at home.

It covers the main pros and cons of different arrangements, including whether you are better off considering a long or short term tenancy, and details of what type of business might benefit most from each. There are also helpful insights into some of the standard terms you might find in a tenancy or licence agreement that could affect your decision.

Our guide to choosing business premises provides an easy way to confidently make this potentially big and expensive decision for your business.

Q&A

  • When should I use this document?

    You can use this guide to choosing your business premises if you are moving your business for any reason.

    Whether you are looking for your first office, have grown out of your current workshop or warehouse space or are reevaluating what you can afford after a rent hike, this comparison table of business premises can help you to make good choices.

    Although your budget will be important, our guide to choosing new premises for your business helps you get to grips with how best to deploy it, whether you need a short term solution with a lot of flex for your rapidly changing needs, or the security of knowing that your rent is fixed for the next few years. This guide helps you focus on what is important for you.

  • What does this document cover?

    This guide to choosing business premises covers everything you need to know to make an informed choice about what your business needs.

    It covers the pros and cons of:

    • Buying premises outright
    • Renting for a short time (up to 5 years, or on a rolling basis eg month to month)
    • Renting for a long time (over 5 years)
    • Taking a short term licence (eg in a shared office space or a concession space within a larger shop)
    • Running your business from home

    The guide also explains what type of business might be best served by each of these different premises solutions to help you choose what best fits your circumstances.

  • Why do I need this document?

    This guide to choosing business premises is a handy tool to help simplify what can be a big decision for your business.

    Even if you think your current premises solution is adequate, it can be helpful to reconsider your business’s needs every now and then to ensure that it is still the best thing for you going forwards. It can be a slow process changing business premises, so it’s worth keeping an eye on your longer term plans and acting sooner rather than later if you think you might need to move.

  • Where can I find out more?

    For detailed guidance on how to choose business premises, see Choosing business premises and negotiating terms.

    Once you have chosen somewhere, we have specific guidance about how to negotiate a new tenancy agreement or licence agreement (including those for shared or serviced office spaces), at Negotiating terms.

    Finally, if you are sure you want to rent, but are not sure about the type of tenancy you should be asking for or why it matters, see Choosing between protected and unprotected tenancies for a handy downloadable guide.

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