Office Space for Rent

Office Spaces for Rent

Finding the right office for rent is important to help your business flourish. Whether your business requires a large customer-facing presence or rooms of offices for staff to work, we manage a wide range of Commercial Real Estate for Lease with a variety of sizes, configurations and spaces available.

We can help you find the right office for rent based on your business’s needs and requirements. We manage office spaces in stand-alone buildings, shopping centres, shopping strips, networking hubs and spaces, and business precincts. Tell us about your requirements so that we can help find the right office space for you. From newly refurbished and fitted-out spaces to existing spaces that have been immaculately maintained, we oversee a broad selection of office spaces in the city, suburbs, and Regional Areas.

Some of our properties also include on-site parking to suit your requirements. Others are located close to various forms of transport so that your clients can easily access your offices. The perfect office space does make the difference. Your staff will enjoy working for you and your customers will engage better with the goods and/or services that you are offering. It takes time to find the right location, and it is important that you conduct your research. If you need help along the way, please do let us know. We can have a no-obligation and confidential discussion to understand your business, your requirements, and your growth strategy. This will help us find a suitable office space for you to rent.

Office Space for Lease in Melbourne

Melbourne can be regarded as one of the most happening property markets in Australia. Whether you have just set up a business or running an established company, finding the right office space for lease in Melbourne can be a challenging affair. It demands local market knowledge and a thorough understanding of one’s business needs.

There are various factors to be considered in leasing an office, which include:

• Lease length


• State of the property


• Public transport access


• Parking availability


• Proximity to clients and staff

Moreover, the market for office space in Melbourne also moves in cycles, with vacancy rates and rental figures shifting across precincts and building grades.

In this regard, National Retail Group (NRG), with more than 20 years of experience in asset management, can guide you to the right choice. We have worked with various types of landlords and tenants, and we can match businesses to properties that suit their operations, budget and growth plans.

National Retail Group’s portfolio in Melbourne covers the CBD, inner suburbs and outer business precincts, which can give tenants more choice. You can trust us to navigate the complex office leasing market in Melbourne to come up with the right office space for you at the right prices.

Types of Office Space for Lease in Melbourne

There is a broad range of office leasing space in Melbourne, suiting different markets and operating models. Understanding them well can help businesses to narrow their search and avoid paying for space or features they don’t need. Some of the types of office leasing spaces in Melbourne are given below:

High-rise Offices in CBD: They are suitable for businesses seeking a prestigious address with easy access to public transport. Generally, an established business with prestigious clientele opts for leasing this type of office spaces, which generally come with professional building management, security and shared amenities.

Suburban Office Parks: They offer a middle ground between cost and convenience. They generally have on-site parking and comparatively lower rental rates than high-rise office spaces in the CBD, but provide a professional environment.

Boutique and Heritage-style Offices: They are easily found in inner-city areas of Melbourne like Richmond, Fitzroy and South Melbourne. This type of office space mostly appeals to creative and technology businesses like advertising and IT, who want an individualistic character in their offices.

Fully Furnished and Serviced Offices: They are suitable for businesses that are seeking to move in quickly without incurring the cost of a fit-out.

Co-working Spaces: Over the years, they have also grown in popularity. They involve shorter commitments and scalable desk numbers for businesses that expect their headcount to change.

Melbourne’s Key Business Precincts

Location of the property, of course, is one of the crucial aspects behind the success or failure of an office lease. One can find a number of business precincts in Melbourne, each having its distinctive character and tenant profile. Some of them are:

Melbourne CBD

The Melbourne CBD can be construed as the focal point for finance, legal, and professional services in Melbourne.  Many huge corporates have offices here. CBD has excellent transportation links through train and tram, and here owners can have easy access to a huge pool of expert human resources.

Docklands

This area has established itself as a modern alternative to the CBD. It is a popular place for office leases, especially with technology and media tenants who love the new buildings, waterfront views and efficient floor plates.

Southbank and St Kilda Road

The area attracts many businesses to settle down. Here you get CBD proximity without CBD pricing, along with a strong concentration of legal, consulting and creative firms.

Richmond, Cremorne and Collingwood

The area is well-known for technology and creative industries. Here one can find warehouse conversions and boutique buildings that suit businesses wanting character-filled space close to the city. These areas are well-suited for tech, creative, or health & wellness enterprises.

Suburban Precincts

The area includes suburbs like Box Hill, Camberwell, South Yarra and the eastern and south-eastern corridors. This location is most suitable for businesses that prioritise local client bases, staff commute times or lower overheads. The suburban precincts in Melbourne have large numbers of childcare properties and localised medical clinics, as lots of young families and aging residents live here or nearby.

Whatever office type you are looking for to lease, matching the property type to your business goals is the first step that you have to take into account while chalking out the lease so that it works for you and your office in the long term.

Melbourne Office Lease Terms Explained

Lease terms can vary considerably, and understanding the key elements before signing helps avoid surprises down the track.

Lease length is one of the first factors to consider while evaluating lease terms for office.

Short-term office leases in Melbourne are generally under five years, and they suit businesses that are growing fast and relocating not so infrequently.

Longer leases, lasting often between five and ten years, happen to be common for larger tenants who want stability and prefer getting leverage on incentives and fit-out contributions.

Gross versus net leases determine how outgoings are handled. Under a gross lease, outgoings such as council rates, land tax and building insurance are generally part of the rent, whereas under a net lease, these are billed separately to the tenant.

Then there are incentives such as rent-free periods or fit-out contributions, which are pretty common in Melbourne’s real estate market, especially for longer commitments or larger floor areas. They are usually negotiated as part of the overall lease deal rather than advertised upfront. The incentives, if any, must be taken into account before signing on the dotted line for the office lease agreement.

Also, it is important to outline the tenant’s obligations to restore the premises at the end of the lease, which has the potential to carry considerable costs on either party if not clarified early.

It should also be remembered that options to renew the lease give tenants the right, but not the obligation, to extend the lease at predetermined terms, thereby giving security to the tenant without locking in a longer initial commitment.

Working through these terms with an experienced adviser will help the lease to reflect your business’s actual needs, not just the landlord’s preferred position.

How Much Does it Cost?

The cost of office space for lease depends on several factors, including location, building grade, lease duration, and lease structure.

In case of most office spaces, location has the biggest influence on the price of the office lease. In Melbourne, premium CBD addresses generally command the highest square metre rates, while suburban and fringe precincts have more competitive pricing without necessarily compromising on the quality.

While premium CBD spaces command top-tier square-metre rates, sub-markets like Cremorne offer competitive yields for creative tech hubs, while outer corridors like Box Hill provide highly efficient floor plates for expanding medical clinics.

Building grade also greatly influences the price of an office lease. Premium and A-grade buildings, with higher specification fit-outs and endowed with modern services and better amenities, have a higher price point than B-grade buildings or older stock, which offer solid functional space at a lower cost.

Size and configuration of the office space are other important factors influencing the lease price of the office space. They influence both the headline rent and the efficiency of the space. It is worth noting that a larger floor plate with an inefficient layout may end up costing more per usable square metre than a smaller, well-designed office.

Not just the base rent but outgoings like car parking and any make-good obligations should also be factored into the total occupancy cost to get an accurate picture of what an office lease will actually cost your business.

Melbourne’s office leasing market shifts across precincts and building grades. In this regard, the most reliable way to understand likely costs for your proposed office space on lease is to discuss your specific requirements and budget with our team. We can guide you toward office spaces that align with what you are prepared and willing to spend on lease.