Whilst we have learnt through experience that all our client's office moves are different, we have developed our own seven stage process, that provides the backbone to any office relocation or renewal managed by the Making Moves team.
Our first stage is to develop a brief to truly understand the drivers behind your office move.
If you have an existing office then we will come and spend some time with you at your offices to see how the company operates. We want to understand what is good about your current office and more importantly what doesn’t work.
Once we have discussed your ideas on location, size and of course cost, we can then commence with the search.
This is often seen as the ‘dull’ bit that we love.
If you have an existing lease on a property, it is so important to know what your current lease commitments are. Our process includes a full lease review of your existing lease to confirm exit dates and to raise any other important factors or concerns.
We also develop cash flows and budgets with our clients to give them guidance on what the likely cost of any office move is going to be. This allows for sensible budgeting and ensures we are looking for the right properties at the right prices.
We have established your requirements, we know when you need to move and we know what budget we are working to. Our next stage is to find you the right property. You can safely leave the search with us, and carry on with your day job, whilst avoiding having to go through the time consuming process of calling Landlord’s agents and searching their websites looking for properties.
Not only do we have access to every single available office property in Central London, we also have strong relationships with Landlord’s and their agents. This gives us exposure to ‘off market’ opportunities that are unlikely to be advertised to the general public.
We also have access to information on every single recorded office lease in Central London, giving us the ability to approach occupiers in specific locations on your behalf, to see if they will consider a move elsewhere.
Put simply, we have the entire market covered.
Once the research has been completed, we will then discuss the results with you and organise viewings of the chosen properties.
You will be accompanied on any viewing tour by one of our Move Makers. We are there to point out the pros and cons of each building, providing guidance on the surrounding area and give you our thoughts on why the property may or may not work for you and your company.
This is also another chance for us to develop the brief with you and to find out what does and doesn’t work at the shortlisted options.
There are no limits to the number of viewing tours and we will continue to search and view options with you until the right property is found.
Lease negotiations for commercial property are complex and can be confusing. The leases themselves often contain clauses which are very onerous on the occupier and can cause issues when a Tenant tries to vacate their existing property.
There are three goals we aim to achieve through our negotiation process:-
The negotiation is a part of the process where Making Moves becomes indispensable. We know every little trick in the book that a Landlord can use against Tenants to make leases onerous and costly.
Once the negotiations are complete, the drafting of the documentation will be handed over to your lawyer. However, Making Moves ensures that we continue to remain by your side throughout this part of the process.
On average a lease in the UK will take approximately 4-6 weeks to draft and sign. Our approach is to regularly chase and call lawyers to ensure that the process runs smoothly. We also provide commercial views and advice to you on the items raised within the lease, to ensure you know what you are signing up for.
At Making Moves, we are very much focused on the search and securing of your new office. We always want to ensure that your move to the new offices runs smoothly.
We are not a fit out company, but we do provide an independent project management service to ensure the process of design and construction of your offices goes smoothly. This encapsulates everything from choosing your furniture to organising a removal firm. Please have a look at the Project Management section of our website for more details.
In addition to the above, once you are all moved in, we make a special effort to visit you at your new offices to make sure that everything is as it should be and that you are enjoying your new workspace.
We understand that an office move can be a stressful experience and sometimes difficult to manage on top of the job you are actually paid to do.
Our process gives our clients comfort that they are in safe hands and that their office move is being managed correctly by one of the Making Moves team.
We guarantee to save you both time and money and we work alongside any business, from those who need their hand holding, up to experienced veterans.