Usually the rents displayed on property details will be shown as ‘per annum’, which means yearly. Landlords won’t usually expect the rent to be payed in one lump sum however and will usually collect rents either quarterly or monthly in advance.
Quarterly rents are collected in 4 instalments every 3 months. Rent will usually be collected on the Quarter Days which are: March 25th, June 24th, September 29th and December 25th. Monthly rent will be collected in 12 instalments on a specific date each month, say the 1st of each month.
How are rents calculated?
The agent will look at comparable market evidence, i.e. what other lettings have taken place on similar properties recently and use that information to calculate the rent for the property. They usually work on a per sq ft basis, so if they know a 1,000 sq ft office has just let for £10,000 per annum this would work out at £10 per sq ft. So, if they put a neighbouring office on the market but this is 1,200 sq ft they would apply the £10 per sq ft so reaching a rent of £12,000 per annum.
Factors such as condition, location and car parking will affect the rate that is applied.
What does per annum exclusive mean? Exclusive means that this is the rent payable exclusive of any other costs, such as VAT, service charge, utility costs, insurance, business rates, etc.
