Researching your commercial property deal

If you don't know where to start to look for a commercial property, you have three basic options. An obvious way is to attend an auction, having requested a catalogue in advance.

Alternatively, you could use the internet to search for properties that meet your requirement in terms of rental yield and geographic location. The PrimePitch website is run by commercial property specialist Propex, which gathers together hundreds of commercial properties from agencies across the UK.

The site is free to use, and provides extensive information about each property offered. Lots typically range between $500,000 and £5m - the lower limit for institutional buyers. It is standard in the commercial property business to supply detailed maps of the area surrounding a shop, office or industrial unit.

For example, 28 Market Place, Great Yarmouth, currently let to Clinton Cards, is on sale through Robert Irving & Burns. The Propex website allows you to see all the shops surrounding it. In this case, you can see that Clinton Cards is sandwiched between branches of Abbey National and Dixons. Few nearby stores are vacant or let to sub-prime tenants.

But to get a real feel for the quality of the tenant, you should visit the site for yourself, especially if it is not a household name. The better quality the tenant, and the longer the tenancy, the lower the rent will be.

If you don't want to be responsible for selecting a property on your own - and most buyers need some expert guidance - then go for a property consultancy. They will charge you a fee of around 1 per cent of the property value. But, in return, you will receive a full survey, covering the quality of the building, any proposed planning changes, an analysis of lease terms, and a comparison with rental yields available elsewhere.