Save on Overheads with Rural Commercial Units in Essex & Cambridgeshire
June 2025
With overheads rising month on month more businesses across the South-East are exploring ways to cut costs – one of the most effective is rethinking the location of your business or splitting out your warehousing/office space. If you’re searching for commercial properties to rent do not overlook rural sites. From farm units to rent to workshops, containers, and yard plots to rent, countryside locations offer financial as well as some operational advantages over traditional industrial estates in urban areas.
So Why Are Many Businesses Moving To Rural Farm Sites?
Commercial units to rent in areas like Chelmsford, Colchester, Cambridge & Littleport come with:
- High rents based on an outdated pricing system
- Traffic congestion as at the mercy of roadworks, temporary traffic lights and redevelopment projects
- Little to no parking or welfare facilities, even on established business parks
- Limited space and opportunity to grow your business if the estate is already at maximum capacity. Often rural landlord can erect new buildings for long-term tenants if required.
By looking just a few miles outside town, businesses can find better value in rural settings with the same variety of sizes and layouts. This makes farm sites ideal for businesses that don’t rely on walk-in customers or a trade counter but still need reliable access and practical storage solutions. Please note retail and customer access can at some farms be restricted. This is not a dealbreaker always but worth keeping in mind that if not crucial for your business as you can often reduce rent further if your movement is low.
Rural units to rent in Essex and Cambridgeshire offer:
- Lower rents per square foot
- Potential shared loading area or assistance with loading from farm staff
- Flexible lease terms – ideal in an uncertain commercial market
- Rent reviews not included in normal lease term
- Quieter, low-traffic surroundings offering a calmer working environment
- Better security in being off the beaten track and and not visible from any main roads
Start your search today – click here to view current available properties to let
Would A Rural Unit Suit My Business Type?
Whether you need a yard to rent, a workshop for rent, or storage to let, rural sites offer practical solutions for B2B tenants. They’re especially suited to:
- Builders, contractors and groundworks firms
- Landscaping and horticultural contractors
- Plant and machinery storage
- Laydown for telecoms and infrastructure projects
- E-commerce or online retail as a hybrid of office and storage can be achieved at a low price point
Many industrial units for rent in the countryside come with hardstanding yards, roller-shutter doors, three-phase power and basic welfare on site. Rural commercial spaces aren’t always just for storage and laydown. Increasingly, they can provide a converted office space to let or an additional portacabin office; concrete loading areas for deliveries; multi-purpose commercial units with possibility to partition, set up racking or resurface.
If you’re looking at commercial units to rent in East Anglia, don’t limit your options to industrial parks. From farm units to storage to let, rural sites provide real value for money — especially in Essex and Cambridgeshire where road links across England and into London remain excellent even once away from the county towns.
Where To Start Looking For Commercial Units to Rent?
The best starting point is to get an idea of what your dealbreakers are and work out how flexible you can be. If the units available to let do not come with internal welfare or office facilities, think about whether you could make do without or if you’d be willing to install yourself. Would an empty shell ex-grainstore work for your business if it saved you £300 per month on rent but you had to partition your own office?
Rural farm units are normally advertised in all the same places as industrial so explore as many online portals as possible. A good starting point would be to give Howie, Kent & Co a call on 01621 212 651 to discuss your requirements. Even if we don’t have the exact unit in the correct location today we can add you to our database and keep you updated with new properties than come on the market. The farming year means that units can go at any moment, it is not always necessary to wait for a tenant to serve notice before a vacancy arises.
