The commercial property world has been thrown a curveball. The UK government’s surprise announcement in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to abolish upward-only rent reviews (UORRs) has sent shockwaves through the industry.

But here’s the thing about market disruptions: they create winners and losers. The winners adapt quickly and double down on what works. The losers panic or hope things will go back to how they were.

Whilst there is a long way to go with this legislation (and the property industry will undoubtedly fight it), this fundamental shift could demand a complete rethink of your whole investment strategy. But here’s the thing. Times like this can be an opportunity and make us level up and do what we (probably) should have been doing anyway!

What’s actually changing (and why it matters)
This massive 338-page Bill introduces new schedules into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, prohibiting upward only rent reviews (UORRs) on all new business tenancies. The scope is comprehensive: open market rent reviews, index-linked increases, even turnover rents – they’ll all become upward and downward.

The government claims this helps small businesses, particularly those on the high street, but here’s the reality: the retail sector often takes shorter leases which don’t contain rent reviews anyway – ironically the retail industry is actually one of the sectors least likely to benefit from the ban.

More concerning for investors is that upwards-only rent reviews underpin why business leases are attractive to investors and lenders, providing stable guaranteed cash flow. Abolishing this practice threatens to undermine the business lease as a secure investment model. But here’s where the opportunity emerges for the strategically minded.