Sidespace · Melbourne, Australia
Simon Hanlon
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sidespace
About
Simon Hanlon founded Sidespace in 2012 and runs it as Chief Executive Officer. Sidespace is Australia's office leasing marketplace: one place to search, compare and enquire on serviced and commercial offices nationwide, free for tenants, with landlords and operators paying only on a completed deal.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) and a Bachelor of Laws from Monash University and was admitted as an Australian lawyer in Victoria in 2011, after a graduate traineeship at Colin Biggers & Paisley and a year as in-house counsel. He does not practise. That background is why Sidespace's guides treat a lease as a contract first and a floor plan second.
For 14 years he has sat between Australian tenants and the country's largest institutional landlords and serviced office operators, across more than a thousand transactions and 2,500 listings, for landlords including Dexus, GPT and Goodman. The figures Sidespace publishes come from that position: live, priced listings rather than surveys, always with the sample size shown.
Career
- Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sidespace2012 to present · Melbourne
- In-house legal counsel, ITAC Services (Aust) Pty Ltd2011 to 2012 · Melbourne
- Admitted as an Australian lawyer, Supreme Court of Victoria2011
- Graduate lawyer, Colin Biggers & Paisley2010 to 2011 · Melbourne
- Bachelor of Laws, Monash University2006 to 2009
- Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance), Monash University2003 to 2005
What he writes about
Commercial office leasing in Australia: what space costs, how leases and licences work, where the risk sits for a tenant, and how the serviced office market is moving city by city. Every research page on Sidespace carries his byline and a stated "as at" date.
Simon is admitted but does not practise law. Nothing published on Sidespace is legal, financial or valuation advice; the guides describe how Australian office leases commonly work so that a tenant knows what to ask, and every lease should be reviewed by a solicitor before signing.