3rd Hawaii Commercial Rent Survey

Aloha,   

As we move into 2021 with cautious optimism, we can reflect on last year’s economic devastation caused by COVID-19. How bad is it out there? Which areas of our economy were hit the hardest? Will people have jobs to return to? The Third Hawaiʻi Commercial Rent Survey answers these questions and continues to diagnose how businesses are faring with commercial rent. 1,126 Hawaiʻi business owners shared their feedback; as we expected, the commercial rent situation continues to worsen.

Survey findings:

• From April through December 2020, 50% of businesses did not pay rent in full.

• Only 5% of businesses have restructured their lease, and only 14% received rent reduction.

• Over half expect to miss at least one full rent payment between January and June 2021.

• More than 80% of businesses saw revenue decline in 2020, and more than 80% expect their annual revenue to decline in 2021.

• 2 in 3 businesses were significantly impacted or closed by government restrictions in 2020. Nearly the same number of businesses do not expect to survive in 2021 without government-funded commercial rent relief.

Congress’ second stimulus package won’t address the nine months of accumulating back rent many small businesses disproportionately suffer from. And vaccines are out now, but it won’t be until mid to late 2021 that enough Americans are inoculated. Leading economists expect daily visitor arrivals and employment to recover deep into 2022 or later.

We need to keep tracking this issue so that we can provide lawmakers with hard data to back up our request for commercial rent relief. Thank you for once again taking a few minutes out of your day to fill out the survey. Also, mahalo to the contributors who helped us spotlight the need for commercial rent relief, including our partners who made this series of quarterly surveys possible.

As Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui said, E kuahui like i ka hana. Let everybody pitch in and work together.

Ryan Tanaka

President Island Business Management, LLC

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KITV: Third Hawaii Commercial Rent Survey results show business economy worsening

PBN: Survey: Nearly Half of Hawaii Businesses Did Not Pay Full Rent Last Year