Pubs

[Roy]

Pubs are cheap. It's always been a dream of mine to buy a pub, not as a commercial enterprise but as a home with benefits.

I've been looking and I'm thinking of making an offer on a place in Wales. It would be a holiday home.

It has two bars, a game room and and a private garden. Parking too!

Are the Welsh still anti-English? I couldn't get served when I was there in 2004.

 

[richatthecroft]

Is the Pub still trading Roy? 

[Elements]

There’s a place near where I used to live took ages to get change of use. Having said that another changed quickly and was converted to 3 homes. I don’t know the ins and outs but that seems something you’d need to look into- the change of use, do you have to prove it’s nit viable? Would think that’s easier to do in this climate!

[Roy]

7 minutes ago, richatthecroft said:

Is the Pub still trading Roy? 

Yes 

 

2 minutes ago, Elements said:

There’s a place near where I used to live took ages to get change of use.

Ah, I see a hurdle?

[Elements]

4 minutes ago, Roy said:

Yes 

 

Ah, I see a hurdle?

https://plainview.co.uk/news/planning-for-pubs-development-and-change-of-use/
 

[Roy]

Ah. Bugger it! 

It's a small village pub, the locals won't have it. The law supports the community.

I don't blame them.

Thanks btw 😁

[richatthecroft]

I guess it’s not insurmountable Roy but as @Elements already pointed out was what I was thinking but moreover, if the incumbent buys and applies for change of use, they become the village/ town villain- even from the locals who never did or would patronise it! 

Depends how thick ones skin is! 
 

[Roy]

Agreed. It's not what I hoped for.

Perhaps it might be a retirement project after all?

I could hire a bar-manager?

(I need to do 'something'!)

[richatthecroft]

Mmm...I can think of better things to do in retirement- drunks, bores & fights,  rates, HM Customs, vat returns & pilferage to name a few headaches...

What about a small Post Office within staggering distance of a Pub and stay this side of the bar- and just think of all the bags of 50p’s & £2 coins you can rifle through.

[dicker]

Hi Roy,

A friend did similar as a retirement project and he was fed up after a couple of years of doing it for similar reasons pointed out by Rich.

I recon running a village shop is more profitable but lacks the fun element!

Best

Dicker

[HighlandTiger]

1 hour ago, Roy said:

Pubs are cheap. It's always been a dream of mine to buy a pub, not as a commercial enterprise but as a home with benefits.

I've been looking and I'm thinking of making an offer on a place in Wales. It would be a holiday home.

It has two bars, a game room and and a private garden. Parking too!

Are the Welsh still anti-English? I couldn't get served when I was there in 2004.

 

As someone who was a publican for about 15 years, I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a pub. The industry was dying pre-covid, supermarkets have taken the early evening trade, and you are left with people already half cut, giving you grief every night, post 10pm. Pubs are closing at a huge rate. 

 

Holiday pubs are even worse, with no winter trade to rely on, and if its a village pub and you are an outsider you will struggle, (I did for a while, I was an Englishman running a Scots pub. However they did accept me eventually, but only because I married in a local family) 

 

21 minutes ago, dicker said:

Hi Roy,

A friend did similar as a retirement project and he was fed up after a couple of years of doing it for similar reasons pointed out by Rich.

I recon running a village shop is more profitable but lacks the fun element!

Best

Dicker

I too have run village shops. If working from 5:30am to 11:00pm 7 days a week gets your blood pumping go for it. Of course, you'll have no hair left thanks to the constant shoplifting, the occasional burglary, and the even rarer armed robbery. I say rare, but in a 10 year spell running convenience stores in Kent and SE London, I have been held up with 1. A gun, 2. A knife (twice), 3. A hatchet, 4. A machete, and 5. My favourite  A sharpened garden rake.

 

I am so glad that I am neither in the pub game, nor running convenience stores anymore.  

[Cornishfarmer]

Buy your pub in Wales, but the flag of st George up.    Re brand it as an English pub......... no one will come in so get your cheap home but also your pub without having to work too hard

[Paul]

@Roy

Only possible way to make cash is via a freehold with no brewery tie ins, so you can pick where you buy your stock from

Freehold will come at a premium, so sinking six figures into something that may or may not work i wouldn't do personally in my latter years

[Roy]

Indeed, it was pure folly to think of myself as a Publican. 

I have no experience in the pub trade, not from the wrong side of the bar anyway, and I've never worked in retail. I'm told my customer service skills need improvement too.

I was surprised though (thanks to @Elements) that it's not a straight forward process as I originally thought. One can't simply buy a pub, shut its doors and live the life of a hermit. If there's a 'loss of community use', forget it and as @richatthecroftsays of the new owner 'they become the village/ town villain- even from the locals who never did or would patronise it!

No thanks.

I'd be better off converting a back room or clearing out the garage and building my own.

 

 

[Stacktastic]

god an english man move into a small village in Wales and convert the only pub. 

Your better off going to the Bible Belt & setting up a Buddhist temple.

Yes change of use is funny thing, but in a village where everyone hates the pub, you might get it right. 
They are super cheap & I think as D-REAM said "things will only get better" in coming years. 

[jultorsk]

 

[richatthecroft]

I saw this too @jultorsk, I see James May has named his Pub after our very own @Roy