How to Find a Commercial Tenant Without Spending a Fortune on Advertising
Traditional commercial property marketing — portal listings, printed brochures, signage — costs money and generates unpredictable results. This guide explores more targeted approaches to finding commercial tenants: from proactive direct marketing to occupier-led platforms that put active requirements in front of landlords without the advertising overhead.
Advertising a commercial property costs money. CoStar subscriptions, Rightmove Commercial listings, Zoopla for Commercial credits, professional photography, floor plan preparation, and printed brochures all add up. And for a landlord who is not a professional property company, commissioning all of this through a commercial agent adds a further layer of cost.
None of this spending guarantees a result. Portal enquiries vary in quality significantly — a listing can generate dozens of enquiries from businesses that are casually browsing rather than actively searching, and zero enquiries from the business that would be the perfect tenant if only they knew the property existed.
This guide covers more targeted approaches to finding commercial tenants.
Understand who is actually looking
Before deciding how to market your property, it helps to understand how commercial tenants actually search for space in 2026.
Most active occupiers — businesses that have decided they need premises and are taking practical steps to find them — are using multiple channels simultaneously:
- Portals (CoStar, Rightmove Commercial, LoopNet) for market-wide searching
- Direct agent relationships for occupiers who have instructed a tenant's agent
- Word of mouth and network introductions — particularly for smaller requirements
- Occupier requirement platforms where businesses post what they need and landlords respond — the reverse model
The businesses browsing portals speculatively — who might happen to see your listing and be interested — are a different population from businesses that have committed to finding new premises, defined their requirement precisely, and posted it on an active demand platform. The latter group are more likely to proceed to viewing, faster to make decisions, and more straightforward to negotiate with.
Target active requirements rather than passive browsers
The most direct approach to finding a commercial tenant is to identify businesses that have already said they need premises like yours — and approach them.
This used to require extensive market intelligence, agent relationships, and often luck. Platforms like RE:match change this by making active occupier requirements public to subscribing landlords and agents. Rather than advertising your property to the market and waiting for enquiries, you browse requirements from businesses that have posted what they need — and respond directly to those that match what you have available.
This is the reverse of the traditional model, and it produces a qualitatively different conversation. The occupier has already committed to searching, defined their requirement precisely, and invited responses. Your response as a landlord is welcomed rather than unsolicited.
Work your existing tenant network
Existing tenants are one of the most underused sources of new tenant leads. In a multi-let building or estate, your current tenants know other businesses, have suppliers and clients who may need space, and often hear about businesses that are looking to relocate before those businesses start a formal search.
Consider:
- Asking current tenants directly whether they know any businesses looking for space
- Letting tenants know which units are coming available and what size and specification they offer
- Offering a finder's fee (subject to legal advice on appropriate structuring) to tenants who introduce a successful letting
This is particularly effective in professional services clusters, creative quarters, and technology parks where tenants are likely to move in similar professional circles.
Approach businesses directly
For specific, high-value requirements — or for a landlord who knows the type of business they want as a tenant — direct outreach can be effective. This works best when:
- You have a clear profile of the ideal tenant for your property type
- You can identify businesses in your area that are growing and may need more space
- You have a personal or professional network in the relevant industry
Direct outreach works particularly well for industrial and trade properties, where the tenant community is relatively concentrated and businesses within a given sector often know each other.
Make sure your empty rates position works for you
One underappreciated aspect of tenant-finding is timing. A landlord who takes their time on the market — declining reasonable terms in hope of better — may find that the empty rates bill that accumulates during the extended search period far exceeds the difference between the terms they accepted and the terms they held out for.
Reviewing the true cost of your void monthly — not just the lost rent, but the empty rates, insurance, maintenance, and marketing costs — creates the right urgency without panic. And understanding this cost gives you a principled basis for evaluating tenant offers: is holding out for an extra £2,000 per year on the rent worth an additional two months of vacancy costing £8,000?
Prepare the property for rapid letting
Tenants who are actively searching make faster decisions when they can picture the property in use. Specific steps that accelerate lettings:
Improve EPC rating if below C. Tenants are increasingly refusing to commit to leases that will breach MEES requirements (EPC C from 2027, EPC B from 2030). A property below EPC C is becoming a structural letting risk.
Provide detailed, accurate marketing information. Floor area in sq ft and sq m (both gross internal and net internal), eaves height (industrial), parking ratio, loading specification, EPC certificate, and service charge history. Tenants who have defined their requirement precisely need this information to pre-qualify suitability — without it, viewings are wasted.
Make the property viewable quickly. A three-week wait for a viewing appointment loses tenants to competing properties. Have a keyholder arrangement that allows viewings within 24–48 hours of a request.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use a commercial agent or try to find a tenant myself?
For most landlords, particularly those managing more than one or two properties, a commercial agent adds value through market knowledge, comparable evidence, and tenant qualification skills that are difficult to replicate independently. However, using an agent does not mean abandoning other approaches — posting your property on RE:match, working your tenant network, and maintaining a well-prepared property all complement agent activity.
How long does it typically take to find a commercial tenant?
This varies significantly by property type, location, quality, and asking rent. In markets with strong demand and limited supply (prime industrial, Grade A offices in major cities), well-priced properties can be let within weeks. In secondary markets or for overpriced properties, the search can extend for months or years. The most consistent finding from commercial property professionals is that realistic pricing and proactive tenant sourcing — going to where active occupiers are, rather than waiting for portal enquiries — materially shortens the letting period.
RE:match gives landlords and agents direct access to active occupier requirements — businesses that have already described exactly what they need. Browse live requirements and respond directly at rematch.co.uk.
About RE:match
RE:match is the UK's reverse commercial property marketplace — where business owners post what space they need and landlords respond. Founded by a RICS-qualified chartered surveyor, our platform is built around how commercial property deals really get done.