Amendments to the Retail Leases Act
Published on October 30, 2026 by Anthony Herro
The New South Wales Legislative Assembly passed the Retail Leases Amendment (Review) Bill 2026 on 23 September 2026.
The Bill has been introduced into the Legislative Council on 24 September 2026 and should shortly become law.
Key amendments proposed to the Retail Leases Act are as follows:
- Waiver or reduction of period of service of Lessor’s disclosure statement
It is a hallmark key provision of the Retail Leases Act that a landlord must serve the tenant with the Lessor’s Disclosure Statement seven (7) days before the Lease is entered into otherwise the tenant can terminate the lease and claim all reasonable costs of entry into the lease (including the costs of the tenant’s fit out) within the first six (6) months. The Bill introduces a fundamental change in that it allows a tenant to either reduce the seven day period or waive it entirely if the tenant has engaged a lawyer or conveyancer and sought their advice about the reduction or waiver.
- Exclusions
Schedule 1A that sets out those uses which are excluded from the operation of the Retail Leases Act will now be set out in the Retail Leases Regulations 2022 instead of being listed in Schedule 1A of the Retail Leases Act.
- Ancillary uses
The Act will now provide that uses which are ancillary to the operation of the retail shop will be subject to the Retail Leases Act, for example car parking, storage and signage.
- Documents to be available at negotiation stage
In addition to providing a copy of the draft lease, a landlord must make available documents which are prescribed by Regulations at the time that negotiations are commenced.
In future this could include, for example, checklists and other documentation.
- Style of Lessor’s disclosure statement
The Act has been amended to allow the form of the disclosure statement to be provided by publication in the Government Gazette and adoption by way of the Regulations.
This will allow, in future, the tailoring of specific disclosure statements, for example a shopping centre specific disclosure statement and a stand-alone premises disclosure statement to allow simplification of the disclosure statement when certain shopping centre information is not required.
- Relocation of premises
The Act is to be amended such that where there is a relocation of a shop pursuant to a relocation clause, the rent payable is to be the same rent as the existing retail shop adjusted to take into account the difference in the commercial value of the existing retail shop compared to the alternative shop at the time of relocation and the Act will now set out that the following factors must be taken into account: the exposure of each shop to foot traffic, the retail mix that surrounds each shop, the road frontage of each shop and the shape, nature and internal consideration of each shop.
- Location regarding intention to end the lease
There has been some confusion about the wording of when the Act required the landlord to serve a notice six to twelve months before the expiry date where the lease contains an option to renew.
The latest amendments clarify that such notification needs to be given either during the final option term or if a lease doesn’t have an option six to twelve months before the expiry date.
- Assignment recorded by way of new lease
The Act has been amended to provide that for an assignment, instead of the parties assigning the existing lease, the parties agree to enter into a new lease, the landlord in such circumstance it is not prohibited from charging reasonable lease preparation costs. This amendment is appropriate because the landlord would be entitled to charge reasonable legal fees in relation to the assignment but under the existing provisions, they could not charge legal fees in the relation to a new lease.
- Requirement to provide executed copy of the lease
The requirement under the Act to provide a copy of the lease executed by the landlord within three months has been amended to allow this time period to be extended if the delay is due to the tenant failing to provide relevant documents, for example a Certificate of Currency or a bank guarantee.
- Extension to registration
The three-month requirement to register the lease can be extended if the delay is due to the tenant failing to provide the landlord with relevant documents including the Certificate of Currency or the bank guarantee.
- Prohibition of turnover for pharmacy premises
Landlords are now prohibited from requiring disclosure of profits or sales for a pharmacy business. This amendment is to align with the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (New South Wales), Schedule 5F.
- Outgoings statements for non-shopping centre premises
Where premises are not in a retail shopping centre, the outgoing statement can be accompanied by a report prepared by a Certified Practicing Accountant instead of a registered company auditor.
The above changes are the first tranche of the 32 recommendations that have been made by the New South Wales Small Business Commissioner in their review of the Retail Leases Act in 2023.
It is anticipated that these amendments will become law shortly.
This article was published on 30 October by Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers and is based on the relevant state of the law (legislation, regulations and case law) at that date for the jurisdiction in which it is published. Please note this article does not constitute legal advice. If you ever need legal advice or want to discuss a legal problem, please contact us to see if we can help. You can reach us on 1800 059 278 or via the Contact us page on our website. (www.codea.com.au)
