UK Pub Sales: Freehold and Leasehold pubs for sale
As a property investment or development opportunity, empty city and town
centre freehold pubs in England, Scotland and Wales may present excellent
value. These type of freehold pubs often occupy prime locations with spacious
yards, gardens and out buildings and offer excellent change of use and
property re-development opportunities.
Recent price cuts caused by Pub Companies offloading unprofitable, struggling, run down or vacant pubs, are tempting entrepreneurs to look at the potential locked up in sites previously thought too expensive to run as a pub or redevelop into flats or apartments for residential housing. Experienced buy to let investors are noticing the niche and are now becoming buy to let developers.
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Paramount Investments offer Freehold & Leasehold
Pubs and other Pub Company or Brewery Investment Opportunities for
Sale in England, Scotland and Wales.
Call us on now on 020 7644 2333
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Paramount Investments: Freehold and Leasehold pubs for sale
Professional property investors who can make rapid buying decisions
and proceed quickly will appreciate the dynamic content of Paramount’s
property investment web-pages.
Many of the cheapest freehold pubs for sale are in the north-west or north of England and Wales. Affected pubs include Stephenson's in Preston, Lancashire, where the sales price has dropped from £195,000 to £150,000; The Windermere in Everton, Liverpool, previously for sale at £175,000 is down to £130,000 and the Comfortable Gill in Stockport, Greater Manchester, the sales price is down from £160,000 to £125,000.
Why Buy A Pub Now? Pubs are now prime targets for the
savvy property investor
The coming months may see the acceleration of the pace of pub closures
as pub landlords and pub companies have had to face up to a tough summer
without international football.
The British Beer & Pub Association estimates that four pubs are shutting down every day and that the rate of closures is 14 times faster than in 2005. There are just over 57,000 pubs in Britain today, compared with 69,000 in 1980.
Beer sales in pubs, relative to other outlets such as supermarkets,
have been falling for 30 years and according to the BBPA, beer sales over
the bar are at their lowest since the Great Depression.
Pub shares have suffered "extraordinary underperformance". Many
have retreated 50 per cent from their 2007 highs. Several UK pub chains,
embracing high-street names such as the Slug and Lettuce, Hogshead and
Walkabout, have collapsed or been forced to sell.
The UK licensed property market is being flooded with cheap empty pub sites as a combination of cheap beer in supermarkets, rising costs and the smoking ban have taken their toll on the trade.
UK Pubs for Sale? Buying a Pub Suitable for Redevelopment.
Before you buy a pub for redevelopment, explore different ways of achieving that all-important profit:
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Minor improvements. A general decorative overhaul can push up the value of a pub, without involving planners, architects and a big investment.
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Converting a Pub. At its most simple you might take a public house and turn it into flats, but this still involves complex budgeting and financing. A professional developer would avoid using their own money to fund a major conversion and this is worth remembering if you're considering investing all your own funds. There's often a large gap between the value of a pub and what it might fetch converted to flats - but there are also a lot of costs involved, and often a lot of pitfalls. Sometimes it's more profitable to convert the pub into a single house. Planning consent will normally be required in both scenarios.
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Change of use. The conversion of a building from one of business use into housing is a more complex proposition. For example, when turning a pub into flats, the big, initial risk is trying to buy a pub without first applying for planning consent for 'change of use'. You should never buy a pub on the assumption that 'change of use' is possible without serious research into the planning issues and a detailed conversation with planning officers. Many pub sales like this are achieved only when they are 'subject to planning', that is, the deal will only be completed, and the full purchase price paid, when planning permission is granted.
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The practicalities. With any prospective pub conversion, you'll need to have a good understanding of building regulations and of the architectural possibilities of your property. When converting larger and more substantial pubs, you'll probably need a professional team and you'll need to budget for their services.
The pub development team should include:-
a quantity surveyor to ascertain costs of the pub conversion
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an architect to design the pub conversion scheme, help secure planning consent, and possibly project manage it
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an engineer to ensure you have a safe, structural solution
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an estate agent to help you sell the finished product
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