The Occupier View.

A trade buyer looks at a store estate differently from a private equity owner. The Westons already run Primark across the country, so expect a review of where Boots and Primark overlap, which leases to renew and which to let go. For landlords this is a period of uncertainty, not strength. For any occupier hoping to take over a Boots unit, or sharing a scheme with one, the review is the time to register interest with the landlord.

Rates are a cost of occupation as real as rent, and for many shops they are now close to it. Until the Budget, occupiers should not agree rents that assume rates stay where they are. Ask for a rent review or break tied to a large rates rise, check every rateable value for grounds to appeal, and remember that each pound of rates a landlord's unit carries is a pound it cannot charge in rent.

Whoever wins, the buyer will look hard at the store list. A management team knows which shops make money and will want to keep those on better terms. A trade buyer such as Fortress will look for overlap with its own estate. Either way, landlords of Poundland units face rent cuts or vacancies. Discount and convenience operators wanting high-street space should be talking to those landlords now.

The choice was about specification and access to the motorway, and it shows where parcel networks are spending. Solar and charging points matter to a depot that runs electric vans, because they cut the energy bill. Occupiers should make sure that saving goes to them: agree who owns the solar power, how it is metered and how the charging points are maintained before signing, or the landlord may sell the tenant its own electricity at a margin.

This is the model for a large tenant renewing: stay, but make the landlord pay to bring the building up to date. A whole-building occupier has the most leverage of any tenant, because if it leaves the landlord has an empty block to refurbish and relet. Occupiers renewing should agree in writing who pays for what, when the works finish and what happens to the rent if they run late.

Landlords will quote this survey in every negotiation, so read it carefully. These are the plans of large international chains, not of the typical UK high-street tenant, and plans are not signed leases. Retailers with growth plans should keep their requirements private, approach several landlords at once, and not let a busy market rush them into long leases without breaks.

When two companies doing the same job merge, they rarely keep two head offices, two customer service operations and two IT estates. Expect E.ON to review where it does what and to give up space over the next two years. That means sublet offices and contact centres coming to market. Occupiers looking in the cities concerned should watch for them: sublet space usually comes fitted out, at a discount, and on shorter terms.

Private equity owners borrow to buy and then look for costs to cut, and property is often near the top of the list. Gamma's landlords should expect harder conversations at the next break or renewal. For occupiers, the same deal shows the risk in reverse: a company that may be sold should keep its leases short and flexible, because a new owner will want the freedom to change the estate quickly.

More fashion brands are choosing not to lease their own warehouses and are paying a logistics firm to share one instead. That turns a ten-year lease into a service contract the brand can end or scale. Occupiers weighing a warehouse lease should price this option first. Those that do sign should remember that the logistics firms are now competing with them for the best Midlands sheds, and should move early.

Technology companies are cutting some jobs and adding others in the same building, so headcount alone is a poor guide to how much space they need. What changes is the kind of space: fewer desks for managers, more rooms for engineering teams and training. Occupiers in the same position should build their next lease around that flexibility, with the right to sublet, give back floors or change the layout without asking the landlord each time.