For Companies
Find the space your business actually runs on.
Whether you are sizing your first warehouse, consolidating offices, or buying the factory you have outgrown leasing, the decision is the same: get the location, the numbers and the compliance right before you sign. This is the occupier playbook, built on sourced market data rather than listings dressed up as research.
1. Site selection: location before listing
The right submarket settles most of the deal before you tour a single unit. Labour catchment, port or airport access, power capacity, expansion room and the cost band for your asset class all sit in the location, not the listing.
Read the submarket
Compare prevailing rents, occupancy and capital values by location and asset class, each figure sourced and dated.
Match the asset class
Office, warehouse, factory, industrial land, data centre, retail and more, with the deepest coverage on industrial and logistics.
Sense-check the price
Put a quoted RM-per-sqft against a market reference band before you take it to your board.
2. Lease versus buy
Leasing keeps capital free and your footprint flexible; buying locks in cost, builds an asset, and suits operations that will not move. The honest answer is a total-cost comparison over your real horizon, not a rule of thumb. Model both, then layer in the transaction taxes so the comparison is all-in.
- Total cost of leasing versus owning over your horizon.
- Effective rent after incentives and the NLA you actually pay for.
- If you buy and finance, the instalment and debt-service cover.
3. Compliance: LMW, licensing and zoning
For industrial occupiers, the building has to fit the regime, not just the operation. A unit can be perfect on rent and wrong on status. Confirm the manufacturing licence path, the zone (free industrial zone or Licensed Manufacturing Warehouse), and the usual fire, Bomba and certificate-of-completion items before you commit.
LMW vs free zone
Two bonded routes, different rules. Know which one your operation needs.
Manufacturing licence
When you need an ICA manufacturing licence and how the application runs.
Leasing mistakes to avoid
The avoidable errors that cost occupiers the most on industrial space.
Also useful: the Licensed Manufacturing Warehouse guide, the bonded warehouse explainer, and the full market intelligence hub.
4. Shortlist, evaluate, then enquire
How to enquire well
One clear requirement beats five vague enquiries.
Before you contact an agent, fix the brief: asset class, target submarket, size band in sqft, lease or buy, budget, and any compliance need such as LMW or a power requirement. A tight brief gets you serious replies and skips the cold-call churn. Shortlisting, side-by-side compare and a single requirement-led enquiry are coming as we open live inventory.
Acquiring from overseas, or as a foreign-owned company? The rules and the tax differ. See the guide for foreign investors, the market intelligence hub, and the tools for the calculators a commercial deal needs.