Four regimes
The same shop, four different contracts.
In France, commercial leasing under Articles L.145-1 to L.145-60 of the Commercial Code produces the bail 3-6-9: a minimum nine-year term in three-year intervals. The tenant may terminate at the end of each three-year period on six months' formal notice; the landlord is bound for the full nine. The tenant also acquires propriété commerciale — a statutory right to renewal. A landlord refusing renewal without proving serious breach owes an éviction indemnity that often equals the full market value of the business goodwill, plus relocation costs.
The United Kingdom runs predominantly on Full Repairing and Insuring leases of five to ten years, where the tenant carries maintenance, external repairs and insurance reimbursement. Security of tenure comes from Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 — an automatic right to renew unless the landlord establishes statutory grounds. Landlords frequently negotiate to contract out of the 1954 Act, which removes that right entirely, so whether your lease is inside or outside the Act is a question to ask on day one.
Germany gives you the least and says so plainly: Gewerbemietrecht under the BGB allows broad contractual freedom and no statutory security of tenure. A five-to-ten-year fixed term expires with no renewal right unless an Optionsrecht was negotiated into the original contract. Italy, under Law 392/1978, does the opposite — a mandatory six-year initial term with an automatic right to a second six, and an avviamento indemnity of 18 to 21 months' rent if the landlord refuses the first renewal without statutory cause.
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| Market | Typical term | Tenant exit | Renewal right |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 9 years (3-6-9) | End of each 3-year period, 6 months' notice | Statutory; refusal triggers an éviction indemnity |
| United Kingdom | 5 to 10 years, FRI | Negotiated break clauses only | Automatic under LTA 1954 Part II, unless contracted out |
| Germany | 5 to 10 years, fixed | As contracted | None, unless an Optionsrecht was negotiated |
| Italy | 6 + 6 years | As contracted, with statutory notice | Automatic second term; refusal triggers an avviamento indemnity |
Entry cost
In prime French retail, the lease itself has a price.
Because French tenure is so protective, prime corridors charge for access to it. A pas-de-porte is a one-off capital premium paid directly to the landlord on signing a new commercial lease — treated either as supplementary prepaid rent or as consideration for the creation of the commercial property right itself.
The alternative is to buy in from the outgoing tenant. A droit au bail transfers the right to occupy under the existing lease's terms, rent and remaining timeline, without acquiring that operator's trade name, inventory or fonds de commerce. For an incoming franchisee that distinction matters: you want the lease, not the business that failed in it.
Neither premium appears in a franchisor's indicative investment range, and neither is recoverable if the format does not work at that address. They belong in the capital plan beside the fit-out, not in a footnote.
Before the lawyers
Catchment, footfall, and whether you may cook there.
Site selection across European territories is governed by the franchisor's own cahier des charges. Selection starts with pedestrian footfall indexing — daily flow, peak commuter periods, directionality — and then catchment analysis using gravitational spatial models across primary five-minute, secondary ten-minute and tertiary fifteen-minute bands, cross-referenced against localised disposable income and municipal demographics.
Then the municipality gets a say. Converting a retail unit (commerce) into foodservice (restauration) requires authorisation for industrial air extraction and external ventilation flues, terrace seating permits, and compliance with local heritage and urban preservation bylaws — the Plan Local d'Urbanisme in France, Denkmalschutz in Germany. A site that ranks well on catchment and fails on extraction is not a site.
- Footfall: daily flow, peak periods and which side of the street it walks on
- Catchment: 5-, 10- and 15-minute bands against local disposable income
- Change of use: commerce to restauration is a permission, not a formality
- Extraction, flues, terrace permits, heritage and preservation bylaws
