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The working notes behind the search: what rent to put in the business plan, every agent worth knowing, how to get them answering the phone, and what to watch in the lease. The map finds the unit; this page gets you through the door and onto sane terms.
What to write in the business plan
| Pitch | Typical asking rent | Read |
|---|---|---|
| North Laine approach streets | £15,000–£22,000 | Trafalgar St, upper Sydney St |
| North Laine prime | £25,000–£40,000 | Kensington Gardens, Gardner St, North Rd corners |
| Church Road, Hove | £20,000–£25,000 | 190 Church Rd quoted at £22,000 |
| Kemptown / St George's Rd | £12,000–£20,000 | Cheaper, strong village trade |
Honest rent line: £18,000 mid-case. Then: rates £0 (see below), deposit 4 months, 3 months rent-free assumed, £1,500–£2,500 legal fees, buildings-insurance reimbursement plus your own contents and public liability cover.
Rateable value under £12,000 = no business rates at all (Small Business Rates Relief, one property; tapers to £15,000). 40 Trafalgar Street's RV is £9,000: £0. Check any address in two minutes on the VOA search, or tap its dot on the map; the rateable value is on every card. Apply for the relief through Brighton & Hove council; it is not automatic.
Every agent worth registering with
Brighton commercial property is a small pond. Register with all of these in one afternoon and you'll hear about units before the portals do.
| Firm | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| SHW | Big regional firm; has 40 Trafalgar St. Retail team: Alex Denning 07943 524 921 · Richard Pyne 07901 821 843 |
| Flude | The dominant Brighton commercial specialist — most North Laine stock passes through here |
| Graves Son & Pilcher | 125-year-old Brighton firm, strong retail & catering list |
| Oakley | Office right by North Laine; strong on indie-scale units |
| Graves Jenkins | Full-service Brighton commercial agency |
| Carr & Priddle | Long-standing local commercial agent |
| Eightfold | Smaller units and quirkier stock, active in the Laine |
| Newlands | Hove-strong; has the 190 Church Rd unit |
Portals lag the agents by days to weeks. Still worth alerts on Rightmove Commercial and Zoopla (BN1), and a weekly sweep of LoopNet and OnTheMarket.
How to deal with agents
One fact explains most agent behaviour: the agent works for the landlord, not for you. Their job is to fill the unit with the least-risk tenant for the least effort. Make yourself the easy, credible answer.
- Lead with the money.
"I have a start-up loan agreed" is the most door-opening sentence you own. Agents ghost browsers; funded applicants with a move-in date get called back.
- Have a one-paragraph pitch ready.
Who you are, the concept (bookshop + café + gallery — say "Class E uses"), size 400–800 sq ft, budget up to ~£22k, areas, timing. Same paragraph to every firm; ask to be registered as an applicant.
- Phone first, email second.
Commercial agents live on the phone. Email is the paper trail; the call is the relationship. Always get a name, and always ask "is anything coming up that isn't listed yet?"
- Chase on a rhythm, not in anger.
A friendly weekly call keeps you at the top of the pile. Agents reward persistence; they never reward one indignant email.
- View everything close.
Even wrong units teach you the market, and the agent learns your face. People instruct people they've met.
- Never negotiate against yourself.
Quoted rents are asking prices. Under-asking plus a rent-free request is normal on anything that's sat listed a while, not cheeky.
Call the agent's mobile mid-morning, Tuesday to Thursday. Voicemail? Leave a short message, then email:
Funding agreed, ready to move, a date. That sentence moves you from browser to applicant. No reply in two working days: ring the switchboard and ask who is handling the instruction now.
Lease watch-outs
The rent is the headline. The lease terms are where new tenants get hurt.
- Repairing obligation — the #1 trap
- Most leases are full repairing and insuring: you hand the unit back in good repair even if it was tatty when you took it. On an "entire building" letting that can include the roof. Insist on a photographic schedule of condition — you return it no worse than you found it. Non-negotiable on an old building.
- Use clause
- Shops, cafés and galleries all sit in planning Class E, so your mix needs no planning change. But the lease can be narrower than planning law — get "Class E" broadly, not "retail sale of books", or the café corner needs landlord consent later.
- Rent-free period
- Ask for 3 months rent-free for the fit-out. Landlords expect the request.
- Deposit and personal guarantee
- Expect a 3–6 month rent deposit. Push back hard on a personal guarantee if trading through a limited company — deposit or guarantee, not both, never unlimited.
- Security of tenure (the 1954 Act)
- A lease "contracted out" of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 gives you no automatic right to renew. Common on small lettings, but it should earn you something back: lower rent or a better break.
- Alterations: lifts, doors and shopfronts
- A lift on a two-floor unit means landlord consent, building regs, and in North Laine (a conservation area) possibly planning. The same goes for changing a shopfront, door or window. Agree the alterations position in heads of terms, before signing. A good ground-floor unit beats a two-floor unit with a lift project attached.
- Café practicalities
- Coffee, cakes and cold food need no extraction — just register as a food business with the council (free, 28 days before opening). Hot food cooked on site means extraction ducting, often refusal-territory in old terraces. Design the café around no extraction and the search gets ten times easier.
- VAT and service charge
- Ask whether the landlord has "opted to tax". If so, VAT lands on top of rent (reclaimable if VAT-registered, cash-flow pain if not). In any shared building, get the service charge history in writing.
A local commercial property solicitor on heads of terms and lease costs £1,500–£2,500 and pays for itself on the schedule-of-condition point alone. Agents will recommend one; so will other North Laine shopkeepers — who are also your best intel on landlords to avoid. Ask them.
Next moves
- Call Alex Denning (07943 524 921) about 40 Trafalgar Street — script above.
- Check any shortlisted address on the VOA rates search or its card on the map — under £12,000 RV means no rates.
- Send the one-paragraph applicant pitch to Flude, GS&P, Oakley, Graves Jenkins, Eightfold and Newlands.
- Set Rightmove and Zoopla commercial alerts for BN1 and BN3.
- Walk Kemptown and Seven Dials — note every empty unit, photograph the agent boards.
- Business plan: rent £18,000, rates £0, deposit 4 months, 3 months rent-free.