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Calling out stats like this makes me suspicious about the quality of the statistical analysis:

>> A majority of 54 percent of small business owners surveyed by Alignable said that their landlords were charging them more now than six months ago

Doesn’t rent, even at the best (worst?) of times, basically always rise every year, at least matching inflation? Half of businesses experiencing a rent rise in half a year would be normal.

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It doesn’t have to match inflation, and there is a little circularity here, since (residential) rent is factored into inflation. I don’t have any insight into commercial rents, but my experiences in residential renting in the 2000s and 2010s would indicate no, yearly rent increases are not expected. They happened from time to time, but far from yearly. Maybe Twice in 10 years? And rents have gone down when the housing market drops, though you might have to move. I’m not sure this really means anything though. It’s more like, how often do you want to evaluate the market. It’s made easier by (possibly cartel creating) software that automates the process now though, so things could be different. But the survey question does seem like it doesn’t mean that much on its own to me as well.

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