News that Icelandic retailer Baugur, which owns many high street staples, is facing the equivalent of examinership is likely to cause significant nervousness amongst Irish shopping centre owners. It owns or has stakes in the likes of Oasis, Karen Millen, House of Fraser and Debenhams, which makes it one of the biggest players in Irish fashion retailing. If the group is broken up, as has been speculated, it would leave landlords in limbo, especially now that they face three other problems.

Shopping centre owners have been struggling to attract retailers for the past six months. Before, when there was a market downturn landlords responded by offering retailers more so-called "key money" – paying them to open a certain number of shops in a centre. They also benefited from a rent-free period and often received a contribution towards the fitting out of shops. However, banks are no longer willing to finance these incentives, and in some cases are refusing to allow lease agreements to go ahead if they believe the rental terms aren't advantageous or the retailer's covenant isn't strong enough.

As a result, workers have been pulled off several shopping centres under construction by developers who cannot draw down the finance to continue developing.

Retailers are renowned in the property business "for putting on the poor mouth", but the collapse in consumer sentiment, funding issues and falling retail sales and volumes means landlords are left with the option of reducing the rent or hoping the tenant does not go out of business.

Investors who bought retail and office properties in the past few years have also been shaken by recent comments by the Master of the High Court. Investors often settled for purchase prices below the cost of borrowing because, under standard commercial property leases, upward-only rent reviews took place every five years in a 25-year lease. With rents rising so quickly, they were willing to take a short-term hit in return for a long-term profit. As a result, at the peak of the market, some properties in Dublin were sold for yields of less than 1%.

However last month, Master of the High Court Edmund Holohan wrote: "Fair rents have been a public policy objective since the days of the Land League. While the current Irish recession is not in the same league as the Great Depression, the public policy to secure early recovery is surely identical. The losses and burdens must be shared fairly." It followed a dispute between landlords Ronan McNamee and Anthony Kidney and defendants Julian and Edward Charlton of the Apollo Gallery at Dawson Street in Dublin. That 35-year lease has upward-only rent reviews every five years.

"It is a common mistake by valuers to read an upward-only review clause as precluding any reduction in rent. Unless they have clearly agreed otherwise, lessees would expect rents to rise and fall in line with prices generally prevailing," Holohan wrote. He added: "A court will not be easily persuaded to accept an interpretation which will give the lessor a windfall in a time of recession. And the courts will surely never rubber-stamp any interpretation which clearly has the effect of unjustly enriching either party."

Holohan's decision has sent shivers down the spines of landlords and banks, who thought a windfall every five years was almost guaranteed. Adding to their fears was a recent decision by Arcadia's Philip Green to put one of his related companies, Matte, into administration.

Matte owned the leases to several shops from which Arcadia trades. Arcadia is the biggest player on the British high street, owning brands like TopShop, Miss Selfridge, Wallis and Dorothy Perkins. Green is demanding lower rents and better terms for the shops, whose leases were held by Matte. At least one Irish investor is believed to have been affected via his ownership of a property at Oxford Street.

The move could be replicated here: during the bubble years, competition between shopping centres led many to settle for a so-called Irish covenant, meaning the parent firm did not guarantee the rent and liability is restricted to the Irish company. Foreign retailers may consider putting their Irish holding companies into examinership. They would then try to agree lower rents.

Companies Office documents show that a company called Matte (Ireland) is registered here. It is owned by Arcadia Group Brands but only because ownership was transferred from Britain's Matte to AGB last May. Matte (Ireland), like Matte in Britain, has not traded for several years.

Shoppers Still Seeking The Free Lunch

Lunchbox sales are soaring as shoppers opt to cook at home and make extra portions to eat for lunch the following day, according to retail analyst IGD. The company also found that customers now want more discounters in their area, a turnaround from when some people feared discount shops would have a negative impact on house prices.

Michael Freedman of IGD, who spoke at a recent Checkout conference, said discounters were now targeting lunchtime trade with chilled drinks and "meal solutions" and were selling better-known brands.

At the same conference, former Aldi Nord managing director Dieter Brandes said the company's philosophy was to grow at its own pace. "Nobody is forcing them to increase sales or store openings. They go step by step. I'm sure it's the same with what they'll do in Ireland," he said, adding that its profit margins are typically 4%-5%.

Aldi has no staff department and no marketing department. Each store holds enough products for just one week. Perhaps most surprisingly, the retailer has no annual budget.

Brandes said his belief was Aldi's growth "can't be stopped" and pointed to a recent price comparison in Florida which found Aldi was 27% cheaper than Wal-Mart, widely viewed as one of the cheapest retailers in the world.