THE AGENTS

Demand for freehold licence premises is still extremely

strong and the rise in interest rates has not affected this in a major way. However, we have seen a definite change in the lease market.

Due to the recent influx of new leases into the market with nil or small ingoing premiums required, prices achieved for lease assignments and the demand for certain styles of operations has changed.

Many pub companies are converting portions

of their managed and tenanted estate into leases -

Punch, Hall & Woodhouse and Thwaites to

name a few.

Both our Birmingham office and Jon-Paul

Humberstone's Bristol office are still finding that some

agents who charge upfront fees are providing inflated valuations, which are not in line with current market

conditions.

In many cases, this means that the business does not sell and loses its initial impact in the market.

The price then has to be reduced substantially,

possibly by another agent, and eventually the business can end up earning less than it would have done, if it had been

effectively priced in the first place.

The other end of this is agents charging back-end fees. Vendors are being charged to withdraw a property from a particular agent.

But we are paid on results and this means we're

motivated to sell properties.

This practice is followed by most agents and is generally considered to be the best one.

On the upside, free-of-tie leases, especially those from private landlords which are still highly sought after, tend to have more attractive rental figures and are achieving premium prices over tied leases.