Percentage Rent Breakpoints

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The National Retail Tenants Association distinguishes natural sales breakpoints from negotiated ones. That difference changes percentage rent.

Fictional lease: $30,000 annual base rent, plus 6% of annual defined sales above its breakpoint. Below the breakpoint, only base rent applies. Assume $600,000 of sales meeting the lease’s definition.

A natural breakpoint is $30,000 ÷ 6% = $500,000. Excess sales are $100,000, producing $6,000 additional rent. Total annual rent is $36,000—not $66,000 from adding 6% of all sales to the base.

Under these natural-breakpoint terms, total rent equals the larger of $30,000 or 6% of sales. At $400,000 sales, rent remains $30,000, not $24,000.

Now change the breakpoint to a negotiated $400,000. At the $600,000 sales, additional rent becomes $12,000 and total rent $42,000. The shortcut understates this total by $6,000.

Keep alternatives separate. Confirm the sales definition, calculation year and payment dates before budgeting; annual totals do not establish monthly cash needs. Exclude operating charges, taxes and other occupancy costs. These invented terms are not a lease quotation or universal rule.