Commercial Property for Beginners - A 6-Part Modular Series

Introduction

Presented by Hannah Mackinlay, this six-part modular webinar series is designed for commercial property support staff and provides an introduction to the key concepts of commercial property, along with practical guidance for paralegals, assistants, and those new to this area of practice.

Commercial property is one of the most varied and engaging areas of work within a solicitor’s office. Matters can range from leases of industrial premises to residential and commercial development projects, requiring a broad understanding of both legal principles and practical procedures. Clients are equally diverse, and practitioners will often work alongside other professionals such as surveyors, architects, planning consultants, and accountants. As a result, skilled real estate lawyers are consistently in high demand within firms undertaking commercial work.

While this area of practice can appear daunting at first, those with experience in residential conveyancing will recognise many of the fundamental principles involved in buying and selling land. However, commercial property transactions often involve less standardised and more complex documentation. This box set will introduce these key differences and support you as you begin your journey towards becoming an effective commercial conveyancer.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

Module 1 - What is Commercial Property?

Though similar to residential, there are key differences:

• Types of transaction involved - leases, purchases
• Different contract - key differences
• Different enquiries - the CPSE
• Searches
• More complex titles
• More tax issues - VAT, SDLT & Capital Allowances
• More complex physical, planning, and infrastructure issues

Module 2 - The Process

• AML
• Searches in detail
• The CPSE enquiries
• Environmental & climate change issues
• Energy Performance Certificates and letting issues
• Exchange of Contracts - no chains!
• Completion
• Lenders - often separately represented - Certificates of Title
• Companies House registration

Module 3 - Planning Law & Infrastructure

The planning position is often more complex with commercial property.

• Basic structure of planning law
• New Labour NPPF favouring housebuilding
• S.106 Agreement & Community Infrastructure Levy
• Road and sewer adoption
• Sustainable Drainage requirements being introduced from 2024/5
• Enforcement of planning breaches - 10 year period
• The Use Classes & Permitted Development

Module 4 - Property Development

Much commercial property involves development of land for sale as dwellings or commercial office/industrial/warehousing. This module will explain the basic concepts behind:

• Options
• Conditional Contracts
• Overage
• Land Promotion Agreements
• Auctions

Module 5 - Commercial Leases

• The Code for Commercial leases
• Structure of a rack rent lease
• The key issues - demised premises, rights granted, repairing obligations, insurance obligations, break clauses
• Proposed ban on Upward Only Rent Reviews
• Green leases clauses and EPC/climate change issues
• Landlord's control over assignments and underletting
• Security of tenure

Module 6 - Tax Considerations

This module will give an overview of the key tax issues, rarely applicable to residential property:

• VAT
• SDLT - what is 'non-wholly residential' or 'mixed use' property?
• Capital Allowances

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Friday 22nd May 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,101 others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.