A leading property agent has reported a 12% increase in the number of pub transactions during the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same period the previous year.
Christie & Co said that it had agreed deals on over 150 individual pub sales during the first three months of this year and that it expected more than 120 completed sales during April.
A significant number of the pubs were sold to regional brewers or established local operators who have come back into the market to take advantage of lower values and the lack of competition from national chains.
The agent said that the alternative-use market had remained stable with the usual buyers such as restaurant operators and residential developers being supplemented by convenience store operators.
Neil Morgan, head of pubs at Christie & Co, said: "The increase in the number of pub transactions we have witnessed at the start of the year compared to the same period last year, when the full impact of the credit crunch was still to be realised, shows that people's appetite to acquire and run a pub is still strong despite the difficulties the sector is currently faced with.
"As we predicted at the start of the year, the demand for quality freeholds has remained strong with regional brewers, cash-rich individuals and established local operators replacing the national pub estate owners and taking advantage of lower values to expand their estates. The shift to more realistic prices has also attracted opportunistic buyers into the market place.
"The pub sector was one of the first in the UK to be affected by the credit crunch, which impacted the market on the back of the smoking ban and the rise in alcohol duty.
"Come mid-2008 the deal market was driven by 3 D's - 'Debt, Death and Divorce', while we are far from the road to recovery, we are seeing the first signs that a fourth D - 'Desire' is making a slow return."
