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North East pubs sold for residential and restaurant use

A growing number of “bottom end” pubs in the North East are being sold on for residential or restaurant use, one firm of surveyors has suggested.

Fleurets noticed that around 45% of all pubs sold in the region were sold for alternative uses - most prominently residential (37%), restaurant (31.5%) and retail (21%).

Around 6% of those sold became hotels and 5% were used for office space.

While Fleurets did not reveal exact numbers, the firm typically sells 2 properties a day and is recognised as active in the region.

Across the North, on average, sales for pub use were £230k, which was 33% higher than sales for alternative use.

Analysis from Fleurets said: “This suggests that in the north more pubs are closing and selling for alternative use because they are no longer viable as pubs, but in the south there are more pub sales going for alternative use because of the higher values being generated.

“At only +6% higher, however, it is not a significant amount and it may well be attributable to a few very high value alternative use sales in central London.

“We have continued to see a slow down in the conversion of public houses sold for alternative use, but the most common end uses haven’t changed a great deal over the last four years.

“What can be seen from the end use figures is that there has been a continued increase in the percentage being sold for residential conversion/development which last year accounted for 59% of all alternative use sales.

“The other point of note is that the supply of pubs to convert to CV stores is continuing, and we have seen developers continuing to identify suitable sites with many working directly with the big pub companies.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .