"Southern Cross": A lesson for investors in sale and leasebacks

Southern Cross's expansion was largely as a result of sale and leasebacks that have turned out to be a bad deal for both Southern Cross's new management and those who bought the leasebacks.

From an investors point of view it highlights the danger of buying a property based on the tenants promise to pay rent rather than the underlying value of the bricks and mortar.

In the UK lack of market rental data can lead to an over reliance on the passing rent when it comes to buying a premises and this can often be exploited by canny operators allowing them to sell on premises at inflated prices with the investor or Bank picking up the tab when it is found that they have overpaid.

LeaseholdersUnited does not believe that this lack of transparency is in the public interest.

So we have created a free National Rental Database portal to help bring this about.

We have also developed the UK's only online service download an independent capital value report on any of 900,000 shops, offices and industrials in the UK for £50 per report

Our first blog post!

Welcome to the LeaseholdersUnited blog, over the next few months our expert team of Chartered Surveyors will be posting comments, help and advice on how UK businesses can manage their business property costs.

If you have been to our site and clicked the "About Us" link you may have seen me (Matt Stannard) near the bottom of the list. My role is to ensure our website and services work and in a simple and usable way so if you have any comments then please do let me know.

If you haven't visited our website yet, please do so, there are a number of FREE and PAID services ranging from ones which let you check for Small Business Rate Relief eligibility through to buying an Estimation of your properties Capital Value.

Thank you for reading!