How to Decide Whether to Stay or Go at Lease Expiry
The stay-or-go decision is rarely about rent alone. It is about cost, risk, and whether your space still fits your business.
Most tenants frame the lease-expiry decision as a rent negotiation. It is better framed as a strategic choice between two fully-costed paths.
Start with the space, not the rent
If your current space no longer fits how your people work — too little collaboration area, too much dedicated office, the wrong configuration — a rent reduction will not fix the underlying problem. Assess your spatial needs first.
Cost the full picture
Staying carries costs tenants often overlook: make-good on a new lease term, refurbishment to bring the space up to standard, and the opportunity cost of an incentive you might command by moving.
Going carries its own: fitout, furniture, IT, moving, and the disruption of the move itself.
Weigh the risk
A renewal offers continuity and certainty. A move offers a space that fits your business today — but introduces delivery risk. The question is whether the strategic benefit of a new space outweighs the execution risk of getting there.
The decision sequence
- Establish your requirements
- Understand your true costs
- Test the market
- Compare stay versus go on equal terms
- Negotiate
- Select your specialists
- Deliver the outcome
Each step informs the next. Skipping the first — your requirements — is the most common reason tenants end up in the wrong space at the wrong price.
The best stay-or-go decision is the one made with both paths costed honestly. The worst is the one made by default, because the runway ran out before the question was properly asked.
The Leverage You Lose the Moment You Speak Too Soon
The most expensive mistake a tenant makes at lease expiry is starting a conversation before their strategy is set. Here is why impulse costs you leverage — and how informed negotiation pays for itself.
Five Things to Consider 18 Months Before Your Office Lease Expires
Eighteen months is the minimum runway a tenant needs to make an informed decision rather than a reactive one. Here is what to do with it.