A robust, well-researched white paper released by Gail Corder Fischer of US tenant representation business Fischer explains how corporate tenants might be “leaving more money than they realise on the table when they place their property portfolios in the hands of large real estate brokerages that serve multiple stakeholders”.
The paper examines why real estate giants don’t and can’t have tenants’ best interests in mind when they also have to represent landlords. Corder Fischer believes that “commercial real estate has a spreading cancer called ‘organisational conflicts of interest’” and that the conflicts cannot be separated through technical barriers such as ‘Chinese Walls’ because of the nature of human behaviour.
She makes a strong argument too that today’s tightening market begs a better solution focused on outsourcing to an independent tenant advisor with an elite team who can secure opportunities at the “best rate, terms, conditions and flexibility that a market can bear”.
We think it’s a highly persuasive paper and Corder Fischer’s themes – while referencing US experience – reflect a growing groundswell of opinion here in New Zealand. We believe, like Gail, that “tenants deserve representation without conflicts”.
