Commercial Property Hunters: Where To Find Commercial Property For Sale

As a commercial property buyer there are many ways to find potential properties to buy in the UK. In this article we outline where to find commercial properties for sale.

Whether you are looking for commercial premises as an investor, owner occupier or for any purpose, it’s important to know where to look and have coverage across as much of the market as possible.

Online Listings

These are some of the key websites that list commercial properties for sale on the open market:

• Rightmove Commercial 
• Zoopla Commercial
• Estates Gazette Property Link
• LoopNet
• NovaLoca
• Movehut
• PropList
• On The Market

Rightmove, Zoopla, Property Link and LoopNet tend to cover most of the commercial property market, but it’s wise to check out the other websites.

You can navigate these websites by searching for commercial properties based on location, price, type (retail, office, industrial, etc), size, etc. They can be updated daily and on most you can setup alerts to stay up to date with new commercial properties being listed.

Commercial Property Estate Agents & Chartered Surveyors

A commercial property property agent can be useful for commercial buyers in many way. Firstly such agents tend to list commercial properties for sale, have networks to vendors who sell commercial properties and have skills and knowledge to find commercial properties to buy on or off market.

Every town and city tends to have commercial property agents active in the area. Keeping in touch and being on good terms with such commercial property agents can help you to secure a commercial property successfully.

You can also use a commercial property agent (like Greater London Commercial ;)) to act on your behalf to search, find, and negotiate a deal to buy commercial properties. The advantages of using a commercial property agent or chartered surveyor is that they eat, sleep and breath the commercial property market. They tend to have a network of contacts, access to off market opportunities, can become aware of commercial premises coming to the market before such properties go to the open market, as well as negotiate on your behalf to secure the best possible deal.

The downside to using a commercial property agent is that that information and knowledge comes at a price, as commercial agents will present options to clients who pay them to act on their behalf, whether as a introduction fee or as a retained agent. However the value of that knowledge and information is justified to find the right commercial property for most buyers.

As a minimum. email or call commercial property agents and make sure your details are registered on their mailing list for any potential new properties coming to market.

Commercial Property Auctions

There are a number of property auctions and commercial property dedicated auctions that happen over a calendar year. Many of these auctions are online, but some are still online and in person. Since the covid pandemic in 2020 many are now online property auctions. This means you have access to auctions across the country and don’t necessarily have to physically attend auctions to bid.

Some auctions are national property auctions and some are dedicated to regions of the UK. Each auction will usually have an auction every month or every after month depending on the auction house.

Commercial property auctions offer a range of different properties including commercial property investments, shops, offices, industrial, churches, vacant properties, land, part vacant properties and everything inbetween. Auctions will often offer unusual commercial properties which may be difficult to value.

Auctions work differently to private treaty sales, as auctions tend to have a short sharp marketing period of around 3 or 4 weeks so you have to be quick to act and be ready to buy with sufficient funds.

The advantages of using auctions is that you can pick up commercial properties in a quick and efficient way, especially if you have cash funds and can act quickly. The downside to the auction route for a buyer is that you don’t have a particularly long time to carry out due diligence as you would under a private treaty purchase of commercial building.

Registering to be notified by email of up coming auction lots on each property auction site is a good idea for any budding commercial property buyer!

For Sale Boards

Comemrcial property for sale boards are an obvious way to find out a property is on the market. This is of course is only helpful if you happen to be in the area you are looking for properties. Not all properties will necessarily have boards on, for various reasons because of the circumstances of sale (say an investment to lessen the impact on the business of the tenant).

For sale boards for commercial properties are often larger and more prominent than for residential premises. They are frequently part of a number of marketing activities a vendor uses to market a commercial property, combined with online marketing.

Also there are occasions old fashioned commercial agents may have a for sale board, but limited online presence about the property.

For sale boards allow you to contact (call, email, QR codes, etc) the commercial property agent or seller to find out more about the property, view and potentially offer on the property.

Print Advertisements

Commercial properties used to be advertised widely in local newspapers and commercial property publications such as Estates Gazette and Property Week. As online and digital marketing takeover, the importance print advertising plays in commercial property marketing is diminishing.

Networking

Networking can be another way to find and source commercial properties. With the right personal and professional networks it can be possible to leverage that to unearth opportunities. Whilst this is not necessarily open to all and easy, within certain business sectors it can happen. This may tie in with key events such as the end of a lease and a tenant vacating or a business failure creating an empty commercial property.

Direct Marketing to Vendors

Direct to vendor marketing is another way to find commercial properties to buy. However this can be difficult as the conversion rate is likely to be low, as most potential vendors will not necessary be willing to sell. Therefore direct to vendor marketing can be highly speculative. This can be done with letters to the property address or legal owner’s address.

As you can see there are many ways to find commercial properties, whether you are looking for a retail premises, office, warehouse, investment, land or unusual commercial property. Be careful to consider each way, research and take your time to find out what is available on and possibly off market.

Greater London Commercial can can help you find a commercial property! Contact Greater London Commercial on 01708 973700 to discuss how we could assist you with our commercial estate agency services.