Last month’s newsletter, a reprint of the article, “Why Use a Tenant Rep?”, was highly rated by our readers and is still ranked as number 7 on the all-time Google rankings.  It seems that our readers are really looking for the secret sauce, an easy to understand, how-to guide to use when negotiating an office lease.

That is why, back in 2005, I wrote the “The Complete Survival Guide to Negotiating an Office Lease (Secrets Your Landlord Doesn’t Want You to Know)”.  The book was the first of its kind to explain the complex issues of office leasing in completely understandable language that is still relevant in today’s new world of real estate. 

          In our most recent series, we have been sounding the alarm of the return of the dreaded “landlord market”.  For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, a landlord market occurs when the perceived negotiating leverage in a lease transaction swings to the Landlord.  Landlord markets can happen suddenly and unexpectantly.  At this time last year, Landlords were practically begging for us to bring them tenants to please look at their space. Then, suddenly in 2026, they seem to have a plethora of tenants all competing for the same space. 

How did this happen?  For the last several years we have seen many businesses that have moved to a hybrid work schedule reducing their space needs dramatically. Some have even decided to work from home forever, putting real stress on landlords as many were forced to watch as their tenant rosters were hollowed out.  With the steady erosion of office building profits, the weaker landlords have been quietly cutting their losses through sales or bankruptcy.  We have all seen many office buildings being demolished to make room for new warehouses and apartment buildings. This loss of inventory has led to a consolidation of office buildings in the key markets.

The surviving landlords, those that have been able to weather the storm, are now for the first time in decades, actually becoming stronger, as more and more tenants have been forced to find a safe harbor in those properties with available office space to meet their space needs.

As the inventory of available office space options begins to shrink, tenants for the first time in decades are now forced to compete for space.  When searching, if they can locate a space they like, they may suddenly find that they are now competing against multiple tenants who also want that space. Unfortunately, this is where things can become very weird. 

When multiple tenants compete for the same space, landlords are then able to pick and choose which tenants they prefer from a variety of space seekers.

Just as suddenly, that nice-guy landlord may morph into a rather arrogant “take it or leave it” sort of guy.  Business owners who are not prepared for the speed of this market transition may find themselves in uncharted territory, watching as their negotiating leverage evaporates before the eyes.

This is when the experience of a tenant advisor can make all the difference.  Working with a tenant advisor with decades of experience in all sorts of market conditions can help you to find the leverage points in the transaction without stress. 

If you want to learn ways to succeed in a highly competitive market, why not give us a call to learn why, at Dickstein Real Estate Services, OUR DIFFERENCE IS YOUR ADVANTAGE.

Lawrence Dickstein