A seller's market

Michelle Perrett takes a look at how the pub property industry has changed in the last 30 years.

In 1975 Jaws hit our movie screens, Fawlty Towers was first screened on TV and Hot Chocolate's You Sexy Thing topped the charts. Things have changed a lot since those days despite the reruns, and that includes the pub trade and the pub property market.

In 2005, the majority of pubs are tenancies or leases and the managed sector is dwindling.

According to the major property agents the lack of freehouses on the market is pushing up the price of leases.

This lack of quality freeholds means that the sector continues to be a seller's market as independent and corporate operators compete for sites.

The latest news is that the leasehold market is seeing a gap developing as good leased pubs sell for over £100,000 and lower trading pubs go for under £50,000. Until three or four years ago it was rare for a leasehold pub to sell for more than £100,000.

It's not hard to see from these latest trends that the sector can change very quickly and the last 30 years has been no different.

In the 1970s, the industry was organised differently. Brewers owned the pubs, tenants paid rent and bought their beer and virtually everything direct from the brewer. This meant that the tenant had a large amount of support and the brewer had an outlet through which they could sell their beers. Brewers sold some of their country pubs because they had low beer sales and inner city sites, according to property agent Fleurets, were selling for as little as £30,000. Tenanted pubs remained in the hands of brewers for generations, and the sort of consolidation and high churn of properties now accepted in the sector was unheard of.

By 1975 there was a change in the sector, with companies taking their high-turnover outlets to convert to managed operations. Even the National Union of Licensed Victuallers launched a campaign to protect tenants as brewers started to convert their pubs into managed houses.

By the early 1980s themed pubs were starting to take off and by 1990 the Beer Orders were introduced which changed the face of the pub trade. They forced the large brewers to sell off pubs as the Monopolies and Mergers Commission considered the industry had a "complex monopoly". The Beer Orders brought a situation where national brewers were forced to bring their estate down to 2,000 pubs. Brewers had to sell off close to 11,000 pubs, which flooded the market. This led to the rise of the pub company - many of which are seen as straight property companies - gaining rent from an asset and making money by tieing the landlord in to purchase beer from them as well as other income streams such as AWP machines.

While the industry has changed, government attempts at intervention have not really seemed to achieve an industry with no monopoly. National pub companies Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns now own about 17,000 pubs between them.

Colin Wellstead, head of pubs and restaurants at Christie & Co, said: "The biggest change has been in the ownership of pubs. It was dominated by the five large brewers and now is by the two biggest pub companies and two managed operators."

There are fewer pubs now than in 1975, says the leading agent, but pubs have got bigger. While some of the smaller unviable pubs have transferred over to alternative use, the explosion in the high street has seen the growth of larger pubs.

Barry Gillham, chairman of property agent Fleurets, agrees. "I think the most important thing is the pub companies are owned by the banks and financial institutions but brewers were owned by the families," he says.

By 1998, the long lease was born. Grand Metropolitan switched 3,600 tenanted pubs over to leasehold with 20-year assignable leases replacing the traditional three-year tenancy. This new company was called Inntrepreneur, the company now at the centre of a legal case involving Bernie Crehan, a licensee who lost his pubs and is claiming the terms of his agreement were unfair.

The price of freehouse pubs have also grown with the average price increasing eight-fold against the retail price index, says recent research by Christie & Co.

The future: Property agents argue that the sector still has too many pubs​

Mr Gillham argues that there are still too many back street boozers, although many country pubs are still viable. Many of those country pubs being closed for alternative use are still viable as a pub but greed - because they are worth more as housing - is bringing about their decline.

Mr Wellstead argues that there will continue to be a switch from managed operations to leased. "We will continue to see a closure of pubs to alternative use. I think we have too many pubs."

While the property agents argue there are too many unviable pubs it is this very thing which has seen the rise of the rogue recruitment company. These companies are ripping off potential licensees by charging them £5,000 and failing to train them and find the promised pub of their dreams.