Christie & Co finds pub, restaurant and hotel values rising
PROPERTY values in Scotland’s hospitality sector are in good health, commercial property agency Christie & Co has said.
Speaking at the firm’s Business Outlook 2015 launch event late last month, Ken Sims, director for Christie & Co in Edinburgh, revealed that pub values had increased by 8.6% over the course of 2014, while hotels and restaurants grew in value by 17.2% and 11.1% respectively.
In Scotland we are seeing a profusion of buyers looking to acquire businesses.
Christie & Co revealed that 80% of the pubs it sold last year had remained as pubs. This was attributed to an increase in quality of assets marketed over the last 24 months, with Christie & Co claiming that the majority of non-viable pubs have now been sold off.
Growth was also reported in the number of independent operators snapping up individual outlets from large multiple operators.
Christie & Co predicted that more single assets would hit the market this year.
In the hotel sector, the Business Outlook report found 2014 to be the year the hotel market “came back to life” as confidence was restored to the industry.
For restaurateurs, Christie & Co predicted that casual dining would continue to grow as operators move away from formal dining. The report found that although individual operators may find it difficult to compete with well known brands, there has been growth among regional multiple operators.
Brian Sheldon, Christie & Co regional director for Scotland, said that trading performance has improved across the majority of business sectors covered by Christie & Co, particularly those which rely on “discretionary spend”.
“Those businesses that are at the top of their game for quality, service and operational efficiency have unsurprisingly come through the recession better with the highest improvements in trading performance,” he said.
“In Scotland we are seeing a profusion of buyers looking to acquire businesses in our sectors so the challenge in 2015 will be to meet the growing demand.”
