An increasing trend for healthcare professionals is the want for their own practice.What are the differences between purchasing and renting? What is the best option? There are many factors in this decision that all come down to personal preference and business strategy (long term/short term).
Below, you’ll find a break down of the pros and the cons for each option, ultimately to help facilitate this personal decision.
Purchasing an office
Pros
The purchase of a practice will provide more stability. The practice owner is protected, and not at the mercy of the landlord (lease non renewal or rental evaluation). Long term, the owner will often gain significant increases in real estate equity.
Cons
The purchase with a loan will impact your cashflow. When business activity decreases, you risk not having not enough cash reserves to reimburse your monthly expenses. In the case of a complete cessation of activity, finding someone to buy your practice could be difficult.
Renting an office
You start your profession and you don’t have enough money to purchase a practice, here are the pros and cons of the renting:
Pros
Renting your practice has the obvious benefit of flexibility! You can move whenever you want, adapt the size, equipment, and the location of your practice throughout its development. Financially, you will not require a loan, however sometimes to pay the deposit. The rents paid are 100% tax deductible.
Cons
The money for your monthly payments are “lost” and will never allow you to prosper with real estate. In some cases, the initial costs can be high (first and last payments, deposits, rent, etc).
Choosing and knowing your options
Being a practice owner or a leaseholder it’s most of a time a finance issue but it’s also the willigness to make long or medium projections for the future: find and get loyalty from its patients, the wish to settle definitely, find a local which matches and adapts the practice’s development.
If you purchase, the best strategy is to work with two financing partners : a bank for the real estate purchase, and Medicapital for the interior renovations and equipment acquisitions.
At MediCapital, we are the only financial partner in Canada that is dedicated exclusively to financial services for healthcare professionals. Our expertise allows us to offer you advantageous financing structures that are simple and effectives. Find out more about how to finance your practice and make your projet a reality thanks to MediCapital financing services for health professionals.
