Simon Chaplin of Christie & Co., the UK’s leading property agents for pubs, monitors West Kent from his office in Maidstone. He says: “There is potential for more pub closures. There’s often a better residential use with a £500,000 freehold property, and the planners make change of use much easier than they used to, though that applies less to village pubs. It’s a case of use it or lose it. If a pub claims to be the local community centre, then it has to be that in practice. People who go out for a meal don’t worry too much if their pint costs £2.60 or £2.70, they go for the ambience and the food.”
He points out that despite the downturn which has seen a sharp fall in the share price of several pub companies, Sevenoaks is very attractive to corporate investors looking for new premises. “West Kent has the advantage of being close to London and isn’t so badly affected by a downturn. There’s still good demand and this is an affluent area. East Kent and the Kent coast are tougher.” He points out that the White Hart on the southern approaches to Sevenoaks is now Bluebeckers, while the Bullfinch in Riverhead has had an astonishing £800,000 pumped into it by Geronimo Inns, which runs a string of upmarket gastropubs in and around London.
Unlike an earlier generation of family-friendly chains such as Harvester, these venues try to stress their individuality and continue to brand themselves not as restaurants but as pubs, even though serving meals is their main business. Simon Chaplin says that despite this competition, traditional pubs with smaller resources can still compete. “Both town and country pubs that concentrate on beer rather than food can do well, but it’s down to the landlords.
The volume of beer sold is down on 20 years ago but a good beer pub can still make money if you do it the right way. Drink-only pubs in the back streets with a clientele of older drinkers have suffered most from the smoking ban. It’s critical to have a good smoking solution – an outside shelter of some kind rather than just a piece of plastic.”
He says there is still no shortage of people wanting to run pubs for the first time. At the moment, he is trying to find an individual buyer for the Padwell Arms at Stone Street. The asking price for the freehold of this real ale pub with its glorious view over apple orchards is £895,000. “Bad news has made people a bit nervous, but I’m hoping for a buyer who will maintain it as a good family-run free house.”
