From 1 January 2019, new ’International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 16 Leases’ makes significant changes to lease accounting for affected commercial tenants, who are now required to report lease liabilities on their balance sheets. This is likely to influence the length of leases taken by tenants in future and will impact tenants’ earnings and liabilities, with consequential effect on covenant tests.

The chair of the Property Section, Warren Gordon, has written on IFRS 16 on the website of his firm, CMS.