Surely with all these closures and seemingly no new business ready to take up the slack landlords are going to have to agree to some concessions on rent prices? It's all a bit cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I wanted to move my two business's together under one roof rather than the two locations I have now. The idea was to consolidate space wise and share a reception, goods outwards, fork lift etc, etc.
I found a suitable building and made inquiries with the real estate people, it turned out that the building had been empty for eight months and the rent was more expensive than the combined rents of my current locations.
The asking price was $30k/month, I made an offer of $26k/month which is equal to my current rents combined. The offer was refused and the building is still empty 18 months later. I found it inconceivable that the landlord would be prepared to lose so much money.
I have since found out that with commercial property the value of the building is primarily based on the rental value and even if it's standing empty with a large rent it's more valuable than something with cheaper rent and 100% occupancy. If the landlord has leveraged loans based on the value of the building and subsequently leases it for less the buildings value will be re-assessed and the loans may be called in by the bank. If the owners can continue without the revenue from the building it may be better to leave it empty than reduce the rent.