Commercial Property Management: A Practical Guide for Australian Agencies

A retail tenant’s option window closes next month. An outgoings statement is due, and the fire contractor still owes you a certificate. That is a normal week in commercial property management, where each date comes from a lease or a state law. Here is how to run it.

What Is Commercial Property Management?

Commercial property management is the care of business property for its owner. It covers offices, shops and factories. In NSW, it is part of what the law calls commercial property agency work. That is work on any property that is not residential property or rural land.

The job covers leases, rent, repairs, safety and reports. Rent reviews, option dates, outgoings and fire records often land on one desk. At an agency that mostly runs homes, that desk may sit with a manager trained on home tenancies. It pays to check that they know commercial leases too.

My book is From Stress to Success in Property Management. I wrote it for all of us in the trade. In it, I said I’ve trained “over ten thousand property managers in offices both big and small”. That work spans “commercial to holiday, residential and onsite management”.

For property managers, this is licensed work. In NSW, you need a real estate licence to lease and manage property for clients. An assistant agent can work under a licensee with a certificate of registration. In Queensland, you need a real estate agent licence or to be registered as a salesperson.

NSW has narrow licence exemptions for some commercial work. You don’t need a licence to do this work for an affiliate, such as a related company. Nor do you need one to work for an owner whose property is worth $40 million or more, or has 20,000 square metres or more of floor area, in total. Outside these exemptions, managing a shop or office for a client is licensed work.

In Victoria, you need an estate agent’s licence, or must work for a licensed agent as their rep. A rep can work as a property manager. From 25 November 2026, each rep must also hold their own individual registration.

How Commercial Property Management Differs From Residential

A key difference is where the rules come from. In NSW and Victoria, a home tenancy uses a standard agreement set by law. A commercial lease is negotiated by the landlord and tenant, so each one differs.

Commercial leases can also run longer. The NSW Small Business Commissioner says a retail lease’s first fixed term is often 3, 5 or 7 years.

The trap is bringing home tenancy habits to commercial files. The lease, and any retail lease law that applies, decides who pays which costs, when rent changes and what happens at the end. So each lease needs its own record.

That trap is why we train on the commercial modules of your software, not the residential ones. We support PropertyMe, MRI, Re-Leased, Console Cloud and Cirrus8. If you have a bespoke setup, we train on yours.

Office, Retail and Industrial Work

Each type of property changes the work. When you lease space, step one is knowing who you want to attract. As I asked in my marketing episode, “Are you aiming to attract a retail business, perhaps a corporate office, or even industrial tenants?” I added, “Each segment has unique needs and also preferences.”

• Office: Tenants often share lifts, foyers and plant. In Queensland, each occupier is usually responsible for the fire safety installations in its own tenancy. The building manager is usually responsible for those in the common areas
• Retail: Shop leases often fall under a retail lease law. That adds rules on disclosure, outgoings and options, set out below
• Industrial: Warehouses, factories and depots. Check how the lease splits repairs, plant and safety work between the two sides

Retail Lease Laws in Each State and Territory

Many shop leases, and some other business leases, fall under a retail lease law. Each state and territory has its own.

This table is general information as at October 2026, not legal advice. Whether a lease is covered depends on the premises, the rent and the tenant. Ask the owner’s lawyer to confirm before you rely on a rule.

Record each lease’s state and whether a retail lease law applies. They decide which state dates go in your assistant’s register. The mistake to avoid is assuming one rule covers every state and territory.

Lease Administration and Critical Dates

Lease administration means tracking what each lease says, and when. Much of the risk sits in a few dates:

• Rent reviews: The lease sets the date and the method, such as CPI, fixed or market. I compare the methods in my guide to commercial rent reviews
• Options to renew: The lease sets the window for the tenant to take a further term. Miss it and the right can be lost
• Expiry and make good: What the tenant must do to the premises when the lease ends
• Insurance and security: The tenant’s insurance certificates and any bank guarantee or bond. Note when each one runs out
• Retail notices: Disclosure statements and outgoings estimates, if a retail lease law applies

Retail lease laws set different option rules in each state. In NSW, the landlord does not have to remind the tenant of the option deadline. In Victoria, the landlord must give written notice at least 3 months before the last date to use it. In Queensland, the lessor must give notice 2 to 6 months before the option date.

Put each of these dates in a shared calendar. My book calls the calendar one of two key action stations. It is where “the absolute highest priority tasks are stored”. I want you to use “a digital calendar and not a paper-based diary”.

Then check next month’s dates in your weekly review. I suggest one “mostly so you don’t miss anything important for the week”.

A Sample PMVA Commercial Lease Register Entry

Your assistant works from a lease event register built for your states. It tracks key dates, owner approvals and tenant replies. Here is one entry for a made-up shop lease in Victoria.

An NSW or Queensland lease would have other dates, so we build each calendar to its state.

Outgoings: Estimates, Recovery and the Annual Statement

Outgoings are the costs of running a building that a lease passes to tenants. The NSW Retail Tenancy Guide 2022 lists costs like cleaning, security, rates and water. The lease sets which costs tenants pay and how they are split.

Retail lease laws add timing rules that differ by state.

Other states, and leases outside retail law, have their own rules. So check the lease and the law that applies. My guide to commercial property outgoings goes deeper.

I often see agencies charge outgoings from habit, not from the lease. So I read the list of costs the lease lets you recover before any estimate is made. Other common errors are using cash instead of accruals and coding costs to the wrong cost centre.

Your assistant can code bills and draft the estimate and the year-end papers. If an audit is needed, an auditor reports on the statement, not your team or an assistant.

Building Safety, Maintenance and Contractors

Commercial buildings carry fire safety and work safety duties. Fire safety duties usually sit with the owner or the occupier. Work health and safety duties can also fall on your agency if it manages or controls the building. So check who holds each duty for each building.

Fire Safety Duties by State

• NSW: The owner must make sure an annual fire safety statement is issued each year. Copies go to the council and Fire and Rescue NSW. An agent with the owner’s prior authority can issue it, but the owner keeps the duty to maintain fire safety measures
• NSW servicing: From 13 February 2026, the rules changed for class 1b and class 2 to 9 buildings. The owner must have the building’s essential fire safety measures inspected and tested to AS 1851-2012. The standard does not cover every case. The Building Commission guide for owners explains the exceptions. If an approved performance solution sets a standard, follow that. AS 1851-2012 does not cover some measures, such as emergency exit lighting. The owner must maintain each such measure to the fire safety schedule or its original design
• Victoria: The owner must prepare an annual essential safety measures report. The owner may authorise an agent, such as a specialist maintenance contractor, to complete it
• Queensland: The occupier gives a yearly occupier’s statement to the Queensland Fire Department. If a tenant occupies the building, that is the tenant. If there is no occupier, the owner signs
• South Australia: Unless exempt, the owner gives the council an annual Form 3 maintenance certificate. It is due within 60 business days after each calendar year ends

The other states and territories have their own schemes. Build your register to the rules where each building is.

Workplace Safety and Asbestos

Every state and territory but Victoria has adopted the model work health and safety laws. Each has its own Act, so check the law where the building is.

Each of these Acts puts a key duty on the person with management or control of a workplace. Section 20 of Queensland’s Work Health and Safety Act 2011 is one example. That person must keep the workplace without risks to health and safety. The test is so far as is reasonably practicable.

Who is that person? Safe Work Australia’s asbestos register guide says it can be the owner. It can be a tenant, depending on its lease. It can also be a business given that role, such as a commercial property manager.

The same person must keep an asbestos register. A building built after 31 December 2003 is exempt if no asbestos is found or likely. In Queensland, the WHS Regulation 2011 sets 31 December 1989 instead.

Victoria uses its own OHS Regulations 2017. Under them, whoever manages or controls a workplace must look for asbestos, so far as is reasonably practicable. They must log what they find in a register. WorkSafe Victoria advises using a competent person to look.

Contractors and Certificates

Most of this work is admin. You book services, chase certificates and file reports. In one episode, I said, “Legal compliance in property management isn’t optional.” One of my five steps is plain: “Document everything.”

Some air conditioning has its own rules. In NSW, if a building has a cooling water system, the occupier must have it audited every year by an independent auditor. The audit certificate goes to the council within 7 days of the audit.

Your assistant keeps the register and books checks. Any sign-off stays with you. See how we help with commercial maintenance admin.

Trust Money and Reporting

Rent that an agency collects for an owner is client money. In NSW, licensees must hold clients’ funds in a trust account. Only the licensee in charge can authorise a withdrawal, and that power can’t be delegated.

In Victoria, trust money covers more than home rent. It includes rent on commercial, industrial or storage premises. But a retail security deposit under the Retail Leases Act 2003 need not go into trust. Rules differ in other states and territories, so check yours.

In one Hey Tiff episode, I explained how we keep the money with you. For daily receipting or reconciling, “all you’ll need to supply us is the download file and or a bank statement”.

I added that at end of month, “we’ll prepare your ABA file, but only you can upload it through the bank”. The same split “goes for processing bills, invoices and BPAY payments too”.

Each month, we track income against budget. We also report on vacancies, days on market and KPIs.

A Yearly Calendar for Your Commercial Portfolio

This is the rhythm behind our commercial task lists. An assistant prepares each item under your direction. Your licensed team decides.

• Daily: File emails, prepare new tenancy papers and log repair requests. Check arrears, raise outgoings invoices and process bills. Track fire and other essential services, plus air con and insurance
• Weekly: Follow up repairs with contractors
• Monthly: Check tenant intentions on options and track periodic leases. Prepare CPI and scheduled rent reviews. Run internal audits of fire and air con records, rent increases and options
• Yearly: Reconcile outgoings

Then add the state dates, as in the register example above.

We built lists like this from our own roadmaps. In a talk on service delivery, I said “we developed roadmaps that unpacked around 1600 tasks” in a property management business. Commercial work is trained as its own set within that map.

What to Delegate and What Stays With Your Licensed Team

Most commercial admin can be prepared by someone else. The decisions can’t.

The responsibility stays with you, too. As I put it in a Hey Tiff episode, “this does not mean you get to outsource your responsibility”.

I saw how much admin can move with Phil Jones, Principal of Propel Realty in Brisbane. As Phil Jones’s case study shows, his agency handles both residential and commercial property. Over 18 months, he moved more than 20 processes to his assistant. Those cover over 300 daily and monthly tasks.

His view was clear. He said our systems, structure and support are “beyond anything that I’ve experienced before in a company”. Those processes span all his admin, not only commercial work.

Want the full split? Our commercial back-office support page sets it out.

FAQs on Commercial Property Management

Run Your Commercial Portfolio by the Calendar

Commercial property management runs on leases, laws and dates. Note each lease’s state and retail law status, put every key date in one shared calendar and check it each week. Want a hand setting this up? I’d like to invite you to book a free strategy session with me, where we’ll map which tasks an assistant could take on.