Advertisement

Six weeks ago, billionaire Solomon Lew told landlords that none of the 1,200 stores within his Premier Investments group would be paying rent while they were closed because of COVID-19.

With the majority of stores now re-opening, Lew has said they will no longer pay fixed rent, but a percentage of gross store sales, to be paid in arrears.

Premier is the largest retail tenant in Australia, and 70% of its outlets’ rental agreements either expire in 2020 or are in ‘hold-over’. This gives Lew plenty of leverage to use COVID-19 as the opportunity to get his rental terms changed permanently:

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:
Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe
About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.