High Street Rents

I have been reading the story of the computer game chain GAME going into administration with intreats over the last few days. In a recent report on the BBC website said that retailer had suffered from high fixed costs. Some of those fixed cost will be rents of the shops they trade from on the high street.

The Government tells us we are all in the this mess together, and it that implies we all need to solve it together. So why are the Landlords that own the shops that traders like GAME are trading through increasing rents? Surely the Landlords should be doing their bit too and not raising the rent on properties to make a quick pound or two.

Locally I know of shops that have closed on the High Street of the nearby town, not because the businesses were in trouble but because rent increases were so large they were forced out of business. If you are to believe that what is being said locally is the truth, then this was done in order to get higher paying retailers into the high street who are prepared to pay more. Rumour also say's it is the work of one estate agent who rightly or wrongly that he can attract higher paying shop keepers or major high street names to the town.

Some of the shops have remained empty for months. In the local small town that means on a handful of closed shops and thankfully that doesn't have much effect, other than the lost of local jobs and the lack of availability of the products once sold from these shops. All the same if that practice is being repeated in larger town that could have big effect on the buying public confidence and I have seen town centres into ghost towns of boarded up shops, especially in large cities.

The sad thing about GAME going into administration is that it employs a lot of younger people. These are just the sort of people that at a moment need a break in life and job to get them started in the world of work. With so many young people out of work the last thing we need in the economy is an employer that employs young people going under. After all these young people are our future.

The whole practice of putting up retail rents stinks of greed in time when what is needed is prudence on everyones part. What landlords, estate agents, and property investment companions need to do is look at the bigger picture and look to the medium and long term, rather than thinking about short term gain. If they are not careful some of them shortly will be going the same way as the shops they closing, and going under themselves.