Commercial rent roll and rollover analysis in Canada

Build the rent roll from property, suite, lease and tenant records

A commercial rent roll is more than a list of tenant names and monthly cheques. It is the joined control record that explains the property capacity, the suite or premises occupied, the current legal document hierarchy, the tenant label, the charge schedule and the dates that govern current and future occupancy. If any layer is unstable, portfolio totals can look precise while remaining operationally unreliable.

Assign stable property and suite identifiers that persist across leasing, property management, accounting and document systems. Preserve executed leases, amendments, assignments, commencement confirmations, rent notices, surrender or termination documents and current tenant status. A browser workspace can organize the analysis, but the approved rent roll and evidence belong in the organization’s controlled repository.

Control the denominator before quoting occupancy

Physical occupancy is occupied suite area divided by the entered rentable-area denominator. That statement is simple; the denominator is not. Property drawings, measurement standards, reconfigurations, expansions, common-area changes and suite splits can produce different area records. Select the controlled area definition used for the ownership report, cite its source and reconcile every tracked suite to it.

Keep tracked area, occupied area and residual vacancy visible. A rent roll that lists only leased premises can silently omit an untracked vacant suite. Conversely, overlapping or duplicated suite records can exceed the building’s area. The workspace treats any unoccupied or untracked portion of the entered property denominator as vacancy and flags suite allocation above the property total.

• Use one declared area basis for the report and retain the supporting measurement record.
• Separate active occupancy, committed future occupancy, vacancy and holdover status.
• Do not count free-rent occupancy as vacancy merely because base rent is zero.
• Reconcile suite splits, expansions, contractions and combinations through dated change control.
• Keep physical occupancy distinct from economic occupancy, collections and revenue recognition.

Source base rent, recoveries and escalation at suite level

For each occupied or committed suite, record the current base-rent rate, additional-rent or recovery rate, lease start, expiry and any entered annual escalation. Cite the exact section, schedule, amendment or notice. Avoid relying on the latest invoice alone: it proves what was billed, not the complete document hierarchy or future contractual rate.

Base rent and recoveries answer different questions. Base rent is commonly the starting point for leasing economics and concentration. Recoveries reimburse some entered property costs but are not automatically profit. Other income may include parking, storage, signage or service charges. Keep every population separate so a reviewer can reconcile the source and apply the organization’s accounting and tax policies outside the planning tool.

Make the planning NOI bridge explicit

The workspace’s current planning NOI is annualized base rent plus entered recoveries and other income, less entered annual operating expenses. The monthly forecast applies the entered operating-expense growth by calendar year. This is a transparent planning bridge for leasing decisions; it is not a definition of net operating income under a reporting framework, loan agreement, appraisal or investment mandate.

Organizations may treat recoveries, straight-line rent, bad debt, property management fees, ground rent, owner-paid utilities, capital items, incentives and non-recurring costs differently. Reconcile the rent roll to the property accounting ledger and the organization’s approved NOI definition. Keep leasing capital below the planning NOI line so tenant improvements and commission remain visible in cash after capital without being presented as recurring property operating expense.

Measure concentration by exposure—not row count

A tenant occupying one large premises can matter more than ten small tenants. Analyze concentration by occupied area and annualized base rent, then group by tenant, industry and property. Consolidate related tenant entities only under an approved grouping method; otherwise preserve the legal tenant names and show the broader relationship as a separate controlled attribute.

Concentration is an exposure map, not a tenant-credit conclusion. A high share can justify deeper review of financial strength, guaranties, security, renewal strategy, use, premises divisibility and replacement cost, but the rent-roll tool does not score credit or predict default. Keep confidential tenant information and credit analysis in authorized systems.

• Review the top tenant by both area share and annualized base-rent share.
• Identify several suites occupied by the same tenant or controlled group.
• Use an explicit industry taxonomy and investigate unspecified classifications.
• Consider whether multiple properties share the same economic tenant or guarantor.
• Pair concentration with expiry timing, premises specialization and entered replacement cost.

Build the expiry ladder and weighted remaining term from exact months

Group current occupied suite area and annualized base rent by entered expiry year, then calculate the amount rolling within the next 12, 24 and 36 months. Use exact YYYY-MM dates so a December expiry and January expiry do not become indistinguishable when the as-of month moves. Invalid, missing and past expiries should remain visible exceptions rather than being forced into a future bucket.

Weighted average lease expiry or term can be weighted by area or current annualized base rent. The two measures can diverge when larger premises pay lower rent per square foot or high-rent suites have shorter terms. State the weighting, as-of date, included population and treatment of committed, vacant and holdover suites. The workspace excludes holdover from weighted remaining term and raises it for review.

Keep entered replacement rent separate from market evidence

Mark-to-market in the workspace compares the entered replacement base-rent rate with the current annualized base-rent rate for suites assigned a renewal or re-leasing scenario. The result shows the arithmetic effect of the user’s assumption. It is not a market-rent opinion, appraisal conclusion, comparable analysis or forecast.

Support an owner-approved market-rent assumption with current leasing evidence appropriate to the property type, location, size, condition, term, incentives, use and timing. Preserve the source date and distinguish face rent from effective rent after free rent, TI, commission and landlord work. Use a sensitivity range when uncertainty matters rather than promoting one optimistic case as fact.

Model the revenue gap and leasing capital visibly

For an entered renewal, the replacement term can begin immediately after the current expiry or on an explicit commencement month. For a re-leasing scenario, the model inserts the entered downtime before replacement commencement. A vacant suite can start from an entered future commencement. Undecided and vacate scenarios show no post-expiry replacement rent, which prevents a silent assumption of perpetual income.

During the entered free-rent period, the workspace can abate base rent only or both base and recoveries, depending on the user’s explicit selection. Tenant improvements are area multiplied by the entered allowance. Modelled commission is the entered percentage of replacement contractual base rent before free-rent abatement. Both appear as a commencement-month cash outflow below planning NOI. Actual agreements and accounting treatment can differ materially.

Prepare a rent roll that can survive lender and investor review

OSFI’s commercial real estate risk-management notice expects federally regulated institutions to obtain relevant, current documentation about matters such as NOI, tenancy, rent rolls and cash-flow sustainability as part of prudent CRE account management. That regulatory expectation applies to institutions, not as a template imposed on every owner, but it illustrates why an undated or unsupported rent roll is weak decision evidence.

A review-ready owner package should reconcile the rent roll to executed documents, property accounting, collections, arrears, leasing pipeline, operating budget and approved capital plan. It should disclose the as-of date, definitions, source coverage, exclusions, related tenants, holdovers, expiries, options, major concessions and scenario ownership. Do not use the workspace to certify a lender covenant, borrowing base, valuation or financial statement.

• Name the preparer, reviewer, as-of date and approved source systems.
• Reconcile tenant and suite identifiers across lease administration and accounting.
• Preserve a change log for new leases, amendments, expansions, contractions and exits.
• Identify material unreconciled differences rather than forcing agreement.
• Keep confidential tenant, security and financial information under approved access controls.

Run the rent roll as a recurring owner control

Refresh the controlled rent roll at every reporting cut and after each executed leasing event. Reconcile property and suite area, verify current tenant status, update exact document references, agree current rent to the lease administration schedule and ledger, investigate arrears separately, review expiries and holdovers, and refresh only the scenarios approved by the leasing or asset-management team.

Export the suite-level rent roll, monthly forecast, review brief and JSON record. Retain reviewed versions so a changed assumption does not overwrite the prior ownership decision file. Use the Landlord Economics tool to examine a single renewal-versus-re-tenant decision in more detail, Additional Rent Reconciliation for annual recoveries, and qualified appraisal, accounting, tax, legal, lending and investment professionals for the conclusions outside this planning model.

• Lock and retain the reviewed reporting cut before importing the next period.
• Investigate source, area, date, status and rollover-plan exceptions before circulation.
• Tie current rent to the Rent Invoice Audit and property ledger without replacing them.
• Separate approved leasing pipeline from speculative market assumptions.
• Track actual downtime, incentives, TI and commission against the original scenario after execution.