Today's Tenant: What They Really Want
Ask any landlord or asset manager what today's tenant wants, and the list is fairly predictable: amenities, flexibility, sustainability, technology. Ask tenants themselves, or watch what they actually choose when a lease gets signed, and a slightly different picture shows up. What tenants say they want and what they act on don't always match, and understanding that gap is becoming one of the more valuable skills in commercial real estate today. Here is what we are seeing today's tenant actually prioritize, building by building and lease by lease.
The Amenity Wars: Wanted, or Just Expected?
Ownership groups have spent the last several years competing hard on in-building amenities: fitness centers, tenant lounges, conference suites, coffee bars. Tenants list these on tour requests and in RFPs, and brokers know to lead with them. But usage data at many properties tells a quieter story, one where amenity spaces get mentioned far more often than they get used. That doesn't mean amenities are irrelevant. They can be the tiebreaker between two comparable buildings. But treating them as the primary driver of a leasing decision, rather than a tiebreaker, risks over-investing in the wrong things. When it comes down to signing, today's tenant weighs cost, location, and functionality first, and amenities after.
The Amenity That Actually Matters Is Outside the Building
If in-building amenities are a tiebreaker, location-based convenience is closer to a dealbreaker. Proximity to home, a manageable commute, and access to genuinely good, not just abundant, food options increasingly outrank what's built into the property itself. Whether an employee comes into the office consistently often depends more on what surrounds the building than on what's inside it. For tenants trying to bring people back into space, the neighborhood is doing work that the lobby can't.
Security Isn't a Feature Anymore, It's a Baseline
A few years ago, security was mostly a downtown, Class A conversation. That's no longer true. Regardless of asset class, submarket, or geography, security is on tenants' minds, from access control and visitor management to how a property responds when something goes wrong. It has shifted from a selling point to a due-diligence item: something tenants expect to be handled well, not something they expect to be sold on.
Back to the Basics: Is It Clean, and Does It Work?
Underneath all of it sits the least glamorous question of all: does the building actually function day to day? Elevators that run reliably, HVAC that holds a consistent temperature, janitorial service that is visibly doing its job. These are the fundamentals a tenant notices immediately and remembers longest. No amenity package makes up for a building that feels poorly maintained. For asset managers, getting the basics right, consistently, tends to matter more to retention than the amenity that photographs well in a leasing brochure.
“Amenities can help a property stand out, but they can’t compensate for poor day-to-day operations. We focus first on the things tenants experience everyday: a clean, well-maintained building, responsive management, and systems that work the way they should. Once that foundation is in place, we can be much more intentional about where additional investment will actually add value.” – Tommy Vandiver, Asset Management Associate
Tenants Are Underwriting Their Landlords Too
One of the more structural shifts in recent years is how much scrutiny tenants now apply to the other side of the lease. A decade ago, a request for a letter of credit or an SNDA (an agreement that protects a tenant's lease rights if the landlord's lender forecloses) was reserved for large tenants or unusual credit situations. Today, requests like these are showing up in letters of intent for comparatively small tenants as a matter of course. Tenants have learned, often from watching peers deal with distressed ownership, that who owns and finances a building matters nearly as much as what's inside it. Landlord capitalization and financial stability have moved from background detail to negotiating point.
Still a Tenant's Market, But the Risk Runs Both Ways
None of this changes the basic balance of power. In most markets, this remains a tenant's market, and landlords continue to compete on rate, concessions, and terms. But that leverage comes with a corresponding responsibility on the landlord side: weighing tenant financial strength more carefully before extending favorable terms. A tenant's balance sheet, growth trajectory, and staying power now factor directly into how a lease gets structured, priced, and secured. The diligence isn't one-directional anymore. It's two parties, each doing real homework on the other.
“A lease is a long-term relationship, so we want to understand the financial strength of a tenant just as much as they want to understand the strength of the ownership behind the building. Doing that diligence upfront allows us to structure leases responsibly while also being transparent and dependable partners throughout the relationship.” – Ashley Hesjedal, Senior Associate, Asset Management
Representation: Are Tenants Leaning In, or Going It Alone?
With more at stake on both sides of the table, a natural question follows: are tenants increasingly bringing in representation for lease renewals, or handling more of it themselves?
The available research points in the same direction the question implies. Lease renewals that once functioned as a formality are increasingly functioning as full negotiations: roughly half of pre-pandemic office leases remain unrenewed, and average lease sizes have fallen well into the double digits versus pre-pandemic norms, evidence that tenants are re-examining their space needs, and their leverage, rather than renewing on autopilot.
Source: Newmark research, as cited in industry reporting (2026). A tenant representation-specific adoption figure from Intelica's own data or brokerage sources would strengthen this section further; we recommend confirming with the broker quoted above before publishing.
What This Adds Up To
Today's tenant is harder to generalize about than a leasing brochure would suggest. They may say they want amenities, but they decide based on convenience. They expect security and functionality as a given, not a selling point. And they are paying closer attention to who they are signing with, just as landlords are paying closer attention to who they are leasing to. The tenants who understand this dynamic, and the owners who respond to it, are the ones setting the pace in this market.