The property market and the smoking ban

"I have seen no real evidence that the introduction of the smoking ban has affected property values in any wholesale way. There has been a fairly constant level of demand within the marketplace for the purchase of good quality businesses for some time now, to include particularly public houses and hotels, and there has been no sign of that level of demand tailing off in the initial few months after the introduction of the ban.

We all still await, with some concern, the actual effect of the ban on some public houses, particularly those traditional bars without any element of food sales. It does seem, however, from initial results coming through that although some traditional bars have suffered, as was expected, with varying levels of reduction in turnover to date, others have bucked the trend and have either remained at broadly similar levels to the same period in the year before and indeed, in some cases, some have even seen some growth.

As far as the property market is concerned, however, the only real evidence that can be relied upon so far is the price levels achieved in respect of disposals of licensed premises, and certainly at GRAHAM + SIBBALD we are seeing no real evidence of any negative impact on property prices thus far. It is to be hoped that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future, although it is fair to say that we will all have to wait and see what happens over a full year. We are all more than aware that the legislation was cleverly introduced in spring time. The real test will be when autumn and winter bite in. Only then will we know for sure that the ban is not having the kind of effect we all feared it would.

The encouraging news, however, is that there is no sign of any tail off in the property market in the meantime, which has got to be good news for all within the industry".

Contact: Gary Louttit
Email: glouttit@g-s.co.uk