NATIONAL: Fashion retailers look set to benefit from a new retail leasing report recommending a national legislative framework.
A draft report -- released on December 13 -- of the Productivity Commission’s investigation into retail tenancy legislation, titled The Market for Retail Tenancy Leases in Australia, has recommended that a nationally consistent retail and commercial leasing framework be introduced to increase efficiencies and reduce costs across all states.
While it could be some time before the report's recommendations come to fruition, it is likely they will be music to the ears of national fashion chains ham-strung by the legislative discrepancies between states.
Meanwhile the report also recommended that the prescriptiveness and red tape of legislation be reduced as well as recommending changes to improve transparency, disclosure and dispute resolution and reduce information imbalances between parties involved in leasing arrangements.
Overall however the commission found that the retail tenancy market was “working reasonably well”, confirmed presiding commissioner Neil Byron.
"While there is room for improvement, the commission found little evidence of fundamental problems in the operation of the retail tenancy market."
Vacancy rates in shopping centres were low, lease renewal rates were high and there were "relatively few formal disputes", while those disputes that did occur were not concentrated in any one format or region, he said.
The draft report has now been prepared for public consultation after which the Commission will finalise its report and present to the federal government next March.