Retail Tenancy Leasing Policy
The Australian Newsagents’ Federation is proactive in representing to governments its member’s experiences about retail leases and tenancy to ensure fair regulation and best practice. The Federation supports national harmonisation of current various State and Territory retail leasing legislation into a uniform national retail tenancy regime.
Newsagents believe they have little protection from unfair practices of unscrupulous landlords and some shopping centre owners due to an inequality in bargaining power and information imbalances. Newsagents have inadequate laws to protect them against some landlord’s misuse of turnover figures in rent deliberations. Harsh terms and onerous lease obligations which can significantly impact their business are issues commonly raised by newsagents if they encounter unfair trading practices.
Newsagents are an important, familiar and integral part of the local community and most shopping centres and high streets. They offer friendly service, convenience, paper goods, lotteries, prepaid products and more alongside traditional news dissemination services and are significant traffic generators to their location.
Newsagents operate a low margin, high volume business with prices dictated by suppliers. Of their five core product categories (newspapers, magazines, lotteries, stationery and greeting cards) only stationery allows newsagents to determine retail prices. In addition, terms and conditions of newsagents’ commercial agreements with publisher suppliers prescribe core operational hours during weekdays and weekends, and specifications regarding the time, volume, manner of delivery, product handling, retail display and promotional activities.
Newsagents have relatively little control over their core revenue streams and margins, or their basic operational costs and are particularly susceptible to their leasing environment. They are unable to absorb increasing occupancy costs compared with other forms of retail.
The Federation calls on retail landlords not to unjustly exploit newsagents and to treat newsagents with fairness, respecting equity, honesty, transparency, efforts of the proprietor and commercial constraints of the newsagency business in all retail lease negotiations.