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Brisbane Property Lawyers

Location, location, location – and legal expertise

They say property investment is all about location, but when it comes to business, the most important challenge you’ll face is ensuring your choice of shopfront, head office or capital venture is backed by sound legal advice. When you need a property lawyer who understands the needs of Brisbane’s commercial enterprises, choose Rouse Lawyers.

As one of the most well-respected commercial law firms in Brisbane, we bring pragmatic legal advice to local, national and global clients across the full range of property law services. Whether you’re building your business empire, or establishing your first franchise, with Rouse Lawyers on your team, you can be confident your bases are covered.

What Can Our Brisbane Property Lawyers Do For You?

For over 15 years, our property lawyers have acted for property developers, advised clients on commercial leases, options, licences, contracts and conveyancing. We are able to assist you with:

When you choose a business lawyer with property expertise, you’re choosing a comprehensive, growth-focussed expert who knows only one direction – forward.

From Conveyancing to Commercial Leasing and Beyond

Rouse Lawyers is a full service commercial law firm with business-savvy legal experts (minus the ivory towers).

With a reassuring ‘no surprises’ fee structure, our clients know we are there to support their vision for business growth. We don’t start the meter running as soon as we pick up the phone.

For many people, buying or selling their house is the most significant transaction of their life and often their only exposure to lawyers.

Our property lawyers take practical approach to:

  • minimise the stress of the transaction; and
  • provide expert advice in an easy to understand manner.

The majority of property transactions proceed smoothly. In the event of a drawback, it is reassuring to know your legal rights are protected by expert property lawyers.

Specialist Property Lawyers for Confident Guidance

There are many property lawyers in Brisbane, but if you are looking for high level support and advice across business investments, you need a lawyer with ‘real world’ commercial experience.

At Rouse Lawyers, we don’t just offer a legal service – we work in partnership with you to gain a deep understanding of your goals and commercial needs.

While property law is one of the core areas of expertise of our firm, we can also link you with professional guidance across franchising law, estate planning and taxation advice to ensure your property investments are just one of many effective components of your future success.

Commercial Property Transactions

We see our role in a commercial property transaction as adding value to the deal.

We offer a complete property transaction service ranging from:

  • advice on business structures, including the establishment of trusts;
  • undertaking extensive due diligence to allow you to make fully informed decisions; and
  • ensuring your legal rights are enforced and commercial goals achieved.

Our property lawyers have extensive expertise in property law, body corporate law, PPSA & PPSR and commercial leasing. This depth of knowledge allows us to provide expert advice on all areas of the transaction.

We will work closely with you to understand your objectives and to discuss appropriate strategies to achieve them while minimising any potential risks associated with the transaction.

Property Development and Body Corporate

Our property team has experience acting for property developers and investors in a range of small to medium sized projects in and around Brisbane.

The services we provide at Rouse Lawyers include:

  • assisting you in the acquisition of the development site;
  • preparing development and joint venture agreements; and
  • preparation of all required documentation including, but not limited to:
    • contract drafting in accordance with legislation, including off-the-plan contracts;
    • commercial leases;
    • Community Management Statements;
    • strata title by-laws;
    • disclosure documentation; and
    • Building Management Statements.

Property Development Tax Structures

The choice of property development tax structures adopted for any property development project often has a key bearing on the tax implications and commercial viability of that particular project.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is an important consideration for investment property or development projects in Australia as is the relationship between property development and company tax rates.

Both landowners and property developers should seek advice for taking advantage of property development tax structures.

Landowners – to ensure the unrealised gain at commencement is taxed as a capital gain rather than as ordinary income without incurring tax restructure costs. This may trigger concessions including the exemption for pre-CGT assets and the CGT discount for post-CGT assets.

Property developers – to offset the profit of one project against expenditure of the next project leading to a tax deferral.

Retail and Commercial Property Leasing

We have significant expertise in preparing, reviewing and advising on retail and commercial leases.

Tenants

Rental costs are a significant proportion of overheads. It is important that you engage a commercial lawyer to review your lease before entering an arrangement that may have long term negative consequences for your business.

We can review and negotiate your retail or commercial lease so that you have certainty with regard to the key terms of a lease along with comfort that there are no “hidden” terms that will later become detrimental to your business.

Amongst other things, you should consider:

  • the initial rent and method of increasing the rent;
  • your ability to transfer or assign the lease, and the expense of doing so;
  • your rights to end the lease including any “make good” provision;
  • duration of the lease and your right to renew it;
  • who pays for outgoings and other charges;
  • the types of insurance required and who maintains it;
  • the consequences of failing to pay rent; and
  • ways of resolving disputes.

Please contact us for our free white paper Leasing Guide for Tenants.

Landlords

We act for landlords to ensure the protection of their property rental income streams. Whether it be preparing and negotiating leases, acting on an assignment of lease, extending, amending or surrendering leases or recovering unpaid rent, you can be assured that our team will manage the project competently and cost effectively.

Retail landlords must adhere to the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld). The key theme of this legislation is disclosure compliance, and we are experienced in assisting retail landlords to ensure that their leases are valid and their ongoing obligations under the Act are satisfied.

Property Law Disputes

Property law is the foundation for many legal transactions, and is often tied to other issues like contract and business disputes.

We provide strategic and forward-thinking advice to clients in relation to preservation of assets and property law rights.

Our team is experienced in advising on a range of property law dispute areas, including:

  • breach of contract to buy, sell, build or develop residential or commercial property;
  • enforcing rights under contracts for the sale of property;
  • matters involving caveats on title;
  • complex property law, such as matters relating to indefeasibility of title and fraud; and
  • leasing disputes.
Latest Articles – Property Law
Christopher Andary

Special Counsel - Property and Commercial Law

Client Reviews

“We highly recommend Rouse Lawyers.

Rouse Lawyers acted for us in the sale of our software business, Precision Mining, to Micromine, a global mining software company. It was a substantial transaction and one in which we (the founding owners) relied on the Rouse M&A team to guide us through the process. We were very impressed with their efforts and tenacity in what was a complex and extensive negotiation process. We highly recommend Rouse Lawyers not only for their M&A expertise but also generally for growing SME’s in the technology space.”

“It’s hard to find good lawyer that understands a “tech” business – Rouse Lawyers are that firm…

“A Big Thank You” to Matthew & the Team at Rouse Lawyers – have assisted me & my business in so many different legal items – from wills to buying property/structuring our business/trademarks/negotiating large deals/spam/privacy issues/lease on our 4 different offices… It’s hard to find good lawyer that understands a “tech” business – Rouse Lawyers are that firm… so skilled in many areas.”

“We have relied on good advice from Rouse Lawyers.

We believe software is driving the world forward. Disruption is happening in every industry and it is our clients who are proactively integrating software into their businesses, to set a whole new standard around the way business is done. We are a business that is growing rapidly and know the importance of good legal advice, which is why we have relied on Rouse Lawyers. Focusing on creating digital platforms on which our clients can innovate to ensure they are the ones modernising, is what gets us out of bed in the mornings.”

“I would recommend Rouse Lawyers for any business.

Young Guns has engaged Rouse Lawyers for all legal requirement/advice for the past 10 years. They have been on our business journey from 10 employees to 450 employees. Matt and Peter have always showed a personal interest in our business success and therefore made many recommendations for short term and long term strategies. I would be happy to recommend Rouse Lawyers for any business looking for a legal partner who they can trust and can provide ongoing, up to date advice.”

“Their knowledge of franchising is comprehensive

I have tried several of the larger law firms at the big end of town but found their services to be quite bland and predictable. Rouse Lawyers’s style of operation suits me much better, their knowledge of franchising is comprehensive, and just as importantly, their thinking is distinctly street wise and entrepreneurial.”

Ready To Take The Next Step?

To see how we can guide you through your requirements, please contact us for more information.