This year more than ever, the relationship between money and property is being thrown into sharp relief as funding is ever more challenging to find and property costs are rising steeply. Three challenges preoccupy most of our clients:

1. Leases. The issues, most weeks, centre on insecure tenancies, the quest for affordable premises and fair rents. Lack of security of tenure is affecting access to capital funding and funding generally, while inhibiting long-term planning.
2. Moving. Five years-plus post-Covid-19, we see a delayed mass move as voluntary organisations seek to realise assets, cut costs, downsize, sell off premises and offload leases. Lower valuations are cutting down balance sheet asset levels, against which financial planning is based.
3. Running costs. Most notably, with hybrid working here to stay as a norm in our sector, are utility costs. The introduction of new charges for long-term systemic change is massively hitting commercial property energy bills, but alas, most charities are unaware of this.

1. Lease issues

Many clients report complex relationships with their local authority. Often, the very council giving them a contract for running local services can be the same council not providing a secure lease. Tenancies-at-will, an issue covered in my previous columns, crop up most weeks in our free Ask a Property Expert service, with reports of a reluctance to grant local charities secure long-term leases.