Morrissey's estate agents has released its annual review of the Irish pubs market, revealing that 35 licensed premises were traded in 2016 for a combined figure of €62.17 million.
Although last year had the strongest growth in value since 2006 - with the capital value of the Dublin market increasing by 43 per cent in 2016 - the number of pubs sales had decreased for the second year in a row, dropping from 39 in 2015. Of the 35 pubs sold last year, 27 of them were sold in the €250,000-€2 million range, reports the Irish Independent.
Press Up Entertainment, owned by Paddy McKillen jr and Matt Ryan, had a busy year as it acquired Howl at the Moon in Dublin, as well as unveiling plans for a 41-bedroom Ranelagh hotel with a public bar, and a six-storey hotel in North Wall Quay which will have a ground floor and rooftop bar.
Other sales last year included Alan Clancy acquiring Limerick's Sin Bin nightclub; the Chris Kelly group adding Dublin's The Black Lion and The Gate to its portfolio; and Galway Bay Brewing Company adding The Beer Trader and The Gasworks in Grand Canal.
"For the past eight years, activity in the marketplace has been predominantly driven by distressed sales due to a reduction of trade coupled with unsustainable debt. However, improving market conditions within the past 24 to 36 months and a realignment of both trade and capital values to more normalised levels has resulted in owners of businesses that have been contemplating retiring from the licensed trade over recent years beginning to bring their properties to market with successful outcomes," said managing director Tony Morrissey.
"Consequently we anticipate sales of retirement-led, well-located licensed premises, to rise over the next 12 to 24-month period. This rise will be modest at first but should gather momentum as high-value transactions increase, underpinning market confidence," he commented.
"We see the value class and calibre of property being offered for sale by auction increasing. This, in turn, will engage vendors to reconsider auction as being the best method of sale in order to realise the best price for their asset. Auctions will present opportunities for vendors to drive value as a result of increased appetite and activity within the market for well-located assets. This demand will be generated from increasing levels of funded purchasers," added Morrissey.
