Acquired by a large investment company in 2017, this attractive pub that shares a name with Del-Boy's favourite boozer just didn't turn out to be quite the opportunity that the owners had hoped. Our Investment team was asked to advise on the likely value and appeal of the freehold interest subject to an existing commercial lease.
In its favour the property has bundles of character, and enjoys a prominent position in the popular suburb of Camberwell. Beyond that though, reality bites. The tenant is a private publican with no real covenant strength, the building isn't very big, and was being brought to the market at a time when every pub in the land was closed due to Covid-19. Nevertheless, we remained confident that the fundamental opportunity to acquire an attractive freehold in SE5 would be enough to generate the right interest.
Let at a £75,000pa with 17 years remaining, we set a guide price of £1,000,000; reflecting a 7.5% gross return. Interest was good (if not manic), and the lower guide helped us to create competition between two standout bidders. We ultimately agreed a sale with a cash buyer at £1,080,000 who exchanged & completed in under 4 weeks. To give some context the buyer is a regular in the pub himself, fully intends to support the incumbent landlady but will happily adopt the role of Mike Fisher and pull pints if he has too. Lovely Jubbly!
Local expertise and tailored marketing advice is more important than ever. In this case we managed to achieve full market value for a leisure investment with no covenant to speak of, and at a time when the tenant wasn't allowed by law to trade. As ever we'd be delighted to hear from any property owners who require disposal advice whether its for an investment like the Nags Head, a vacant commercial property or a development site. In fact, test us on any type of property -we're confident we can give you the right advice, or we'll point you in the direction of a colleague that can.
PROJECT ADDRESS: The Nags Head, 242 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, London SE5 0DP
