August 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
50
shopping malls & office developments
EXPLAINSSEANLIEBENBERG,
newbusiness
executive for EFM: “The new method was
introduced as a far more accurate means of
measuring floor areas for office, retail and
industrial space and SAPOA recommends
its use for both existing and new buildings.
As members of SAPOA and as intended,
both EFM and our clients are embracing this
new method in order to achieve national
uniformity in regard to the measurement of
rentable area.”
He says it is interesting to note that in gen-
eral, landlords benefitted from the fact that
the remote common areas have now been
allocated on a proportionate basis to ten-
ants. On the other hand total rentable areas
decreased because supplementary common
areas, such as stores in office blocks, now
come out of the total rentable area of a build-
ing and are listed separately and charged at a
rate or cost at the landlord’s discretion.
Liebenberg says in the past EFM had
to produce measurements with four deci-
mal places in order to balance with prop-
erty management systems rounding off at
three or less decimals. Adoptionof the SAPOA
recommendation of rounding off to the near-
est full square metre eliminates numerous
debates with various consultants over minor
decimal differences.
“We are now applying the following
rules when measuring areas for the various
building types. Firstly, in regard to offices, the
rentable area comprises the usable area plus
the common area.
“The common area is broken down into
two further categories, namely the primary
common area on any given floor, and the
remote common area such as entrance foyers,
plant and service rooms located elsewhere
in the building, or on site and not on the
given floor. The rentable area excludes
a supplementary area that may produce
additional revenue.”
Liebenberg says in EFM’s experience
these definitions have made quite substan-
tial changes in comparisons of old to new
measurement methods. Remote common
areas have increased the rentable area while
in turn the supplementary common areas
have reduced the rentable area.
“This varies frombuilding to building and
in some cases they either even eachother out,
or increase or decrease the total rentable area
– depending on respective sizes and areas.
Overall wehavenotedan increaseof between
2,5 to 5% in rentable area across office build-
ings we have re-measured. The challenge for
landlords and property managers is how to
apply these new rentable areas per tenant
into current leases and property manage-
ment system records. We recommend that
SAPOA looks into how remote common areas
located in the common site in an office park
with varying building sizes are applied.“
Retail space
In regard to retail space, the rentable area
comprises the usable area plus the secondary
common area serving only one tenant. The
useable area is the area capable of exclusive
occupation by the tenant and is the total area
enclosed by the lease line, the demisingwalls
and external walls, whether or not a shop-
front is erected behind the lease line.
The common area consists of the primary
and secondary common areas. The primary
common area comprises all building areas
that are not part of the rentable area, and
the primary common area is not charged
to tenants and includes parking areas. The
secondary common area is an area such as
an access passage, plant room, toilets, loading
docks, etc. Any secondary common area dedi-
cated to serve one tenant becomes rentable.
“Our challenge now and in the past has
been the interpretation of the lease line.
SAPOA indicates that this is the notional line
determined by the landlord as themaximum
extent of the shop-front position separating
the shop unit fromthe primary common area.
The actual position of the shop-front behind
the notational lease line is not taken into
account in the measurement of the usable
area,”says Liebenberg.
“Often the lease line, especially with old
buildings, is not indicated on any hard copy
drawings or historical records. Determining
themaximumextent is open to interpretation
so we have relied on landlord interpretation
and opinion. Applications vary from the
inner surface of the glass or shop-front detail
to the furthest extent of structural columns
protruding into the primary common area
and between consecutive shops. Isolated
columns and enclosed penetrations are
excluded from the usable area irrespective of
size, while projections in demising or external
walls exceeding 0,25 m
2
in the sectional area
are also excluded.”
Liebenberg says that columns have
created somewhat of an issue as the new
method refers to isolated columns and pro-
jections in demising walls. However, the text
and diagrams in use in the current SAPOA
document leave room for differing interpre-
tations. Isolated columns are easy to identify
and removewhiledemisingprojections could
be interpreted differently, either in or out
depending on sectional area calculations.
“We suggest having these interpretations
and decisions documented and approved by
the landlord as the applied rule which can be
retrieved and justified should another party
challenge the measurement. We have noted
an increase in retail rentable areas even with
the exclusion of columns and projections in
demising walls. A large component of the
increase relates to the inclusion of second-
ary common areas dedicated to one tenant.
Quite often the larger retail stores will include
service passages, dedicated plant rooms,
toilets and loading docks. Again this varies
from store to store, but across the board EFM
has encountered increases in rentable area
between 2,5 and 7%,”he says.
Industrial property
In regard to industrial property, the major
change with industrial buildings is the clas-
sification of the buildings into two catego-
ries – single tenant industrial buildings and
multi-tenant industrial buildings. In single
tenant industrial buildings the rentable area is
the entire construction areameasured at each
covered floor level over the external walls
to the external finished surface – without
any deductions.
In multi-tenant industrial buildings the
rentable area comprises the usable area
plus the common area. Says Liebenberg:
“While we have made adjustments to re-
New method garners support
While the SA Property Owners’ Association’s (SAPOA) new method for
measuring floor areas was approved for use in August 2005, it is only
in the last two years that Excellerate Facilities Management (EFM)
has seen a marked increase in interest among commercial property
landlords to amend records accordingly.
Sean Liebenberg, new business executive for EFM.
