Commercial property stakeholders including landlords, tenants and banks must work together to devise workable arrangements to manage the fallout from the coronavirus, Australia’s prime minister says.

In an address last night, Prime Minister Scott Morrison implored all stakeholders in commercial and residential property sector to work together.

“My message to tenants – particularly commercial tenants – and commercial landlords is a very straightforward one,” Morrison said.

“We need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out about looking at the businesses which have been closed, businesses that may have had a significant reduction in revenues, and we need landlords and tenants to sit down and come up with arrangements that enable them to get through this crisis so that on the other side, the landlord has a tenant which is a business that can pay rent and the business is a business that can remerge on the other side of this and be able to go on and employ people on the other side of these arrangements.”

“We want the banks to help them achieve this outcome. We want people to sit down and work this out.”

Morrison’s comments came as federal and state governments agreed on Sunday to a series of principles in regard to commercial and residential tenancies.

The most significant of these will see states and territories will implement a six month moratorium on evictions for tenants who are unable to meet their commitments.

In his address, Morrison said the government would work on measures to support rental market stakeholders but stressed that these would only be available to those who worked cooperatively.

He said innovative and unique solutions would be important.

“We want people -bespoke, customised, to their own circumstances – to sit down and work these things out,” Morrison said.

“There’s no rule book for this. We are in uncharted territory. But the goal should be shared. That is a business that can reopen on the other side.”