Commercial Real Estate Broker Commission in NYC: Who Pays It, and What It Buys

On a New York office lease, the commercial real estate broker commission is usually the landlord's bill, not the tenant's. It is a percentage of all the rent due across the lease term, written into a commission agreement between the landlord and the brokers, and no fixed or regulated rate exists. A longer term or a bigger floor makes a bigger fee. That one pool is then divided between the landlord's listing broker and the tenant's broker. Put two questions to any broker before you start: how are you paid on my deal, and do you also represent this building's owner?

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Follow the fee: who signs the commission agreement

The tenant's signature is not on the document that pays the brokers. The landlord signs a commission agreement with the brokers on the deal, and the fee comes due under it once a lease is signed. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, which is why a tenant rarely writes a separate check. The lease and that agreement decide each deal, and two exceptions are worth knowing.

A sublease. The company giving up the space usually pays, because in that deal it stands where a landlord would.
A landlord that declines to pay. Your own agreement with your broker should say what happens then.

What the percentage is taken from

The base is the aggregate rent: every year of rent in the lease, added together. The percentage applied to it is negotiated deal by deal, and some agreements lower it for the later years of a lease.

A worked example shows the mechanics. Say a 5,000 square foot floor asks $60 a square foot on a five-year term. In this example the aggregate is $60 times 5,000 times 5, or $1,500,000 before escalations, so every 1 percent of commission comes to $15,000. Stretch the same example to seven years and the aggregate is $2,100,000, with each point worth $21,000. These figures show the arithmetic; they are not a quote.

Term and size move the fee most. Add two years, as the example does, and an unchanged percentage pays the brokers two fifths more.

Is 3 percent standard, and how the pool is split

No single figure is standard. New York office lease commissions are not regulated, and a number quoted as the norm leaves out three things: a percentage of what, across how many years, and paid by whom.

A commission split is the division of that one pool between the two brokerages on the deal: the listing broker who leases the building for its owner, and the broker working for the tenant. Their agreements fix the shares, and you can ask your broker to show how the pool divides on your deal. Payment often arrives in parts, some at signing and the remainder when the tenant moves in or rent starts.

What the tenant's broker does for that fee

The commission is paid at the end, for work that begins weeks or months earlier.

The brief: headcount, move date and budget written down as one requirement.
The survey and shortlist: direct floors, subleases and space not yet marketed.
Tours and test fits, so square feet become desks and rooms.
Proposals put on effective rent, with free rent and the allowance priced in.
The letter of intent, then the lease alongside your attorney.

How to choose a tenant rep broker shows how to test a broker on each stage. The floors below sit in the middle of our price range. Run the sum on any of them: asking rent, times square feet, times years.

Floors asking $50 to $75 per square foot

Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, cheapest first

20 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $50 to $75 per square foot per year, from 2,500 to 27,344 square feet.

Floors: 20
Sizes: 2,500-27,344 sq ft
Asking rent: $50-$72 / sq ft

Every available floor, with asking rents →

The full guide

This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:

Does the tenant ever end up paying the broker's commission?

Sometimes. On a sublease the company giving up the space usually pays. If a landlord refuses to pay a commission, the agreement you signed with your own broker decides whether any of it falls to you. The tenant representation agreement shows which clause covers each case.

Does a broker earn more when we sign a longer lease?

In most cases, yes, because the fee is figured on total rent and more years mean more rent. That is a reason to ask the question out loud. A good broker can describe a search where the advice was less space or fewer years.

What should a broker tell us about pay before we tour?

Who pays, under which agreement, whether the amount differs from one building on your shortlist to another, and whether the firm leases any of those buildings for the owner. Nomad Property Group is a licensed New York real estate broker that also offers agency leasing and owner representation, so put the same question to Nomad. Where one firm sits on both sides of a deal, New York requires informed consent from the landlord and the tenant alike. Our brokerage page explains how we work on a tenant's search.

Talk to a broker

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Tell us three things: team size, timing, budget. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the asking rent on every floor that publishes one.

Within the houra broker reaches out during business hours, no automated triage
On your sidewe work for you on your search, and the landlord usually pays our fee
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