75% drop in pub value

A CORK city pub with a chequered history may prove to be one of the year’s smart purchases.

Trading at one time under the unlikely name of the Whiff’n’Poof (a metaphor for rising and falling bar values?) Paddy the Farmer’s Bar was bought at auction for €485,000 last week, just over its €480,00 reserve, and reportedly below a recent private treaty offer of over €500,000 on it via different agents prior to being listed with Allsops. Back in 2006, it sold for €2 million, to the now-distressed Rebel Bar Group, who eventually had up to 20 Cork bars in their portfolio.

Good rental returns and quick profits came with some of the purchases at last week’s Allsops auction, with a 93% auction success rate and which netted almost €18m. In the same price bracket was Co Cork’s Charleville Imperial House, which made €465,000 under the hammer for receivers, well over its €400k reserve. It has rents of €95,680, but with some short tenancies via a mix of three retail units, and seven residential units. It too had a higher private treaty offer on it with other selling agents, according to local sources, but the nature of those offers and/or special provisos isn’t known.

Last week’s headline story was the prompt resale of 23 Northumberland Road, Dublin, which sold for €685,000, more than €135,000 over the private treaty price paid for it just three months earlier, according to the newly-established Property Price Register.

Seen very much as a bargain in Munster eyes was Cork city’s Paddy the Farmer’s bar, which sold for €485,000 under the hammer to a local buyer whose identity hasn’t yet been confirmed but who identified himself on the day as a publican.

It had a current quoted rent roll of €38,040, with three of its nine apartments vacant, and sources say there may be compliance issues to be resolved before those can be let. Apartment rents are c €6,000 pa each, and the ground-floor bar area of 2,250 sq ft could realistically be let for a further €20 to 30,000 pa. Licence value is c €70,000.

It previously did a 50:50 food and drink trade, before more area was given to off-licence sales. The inner suburban bar is adjacent to the South Infirmary/Victoria Hospital complex, as well as St John’s College. The corner property’s floor area is over 7,000 sq ft. In June 2011, it had a €925,000 guide when listed via Savills. Deemed a very viable trading location and entity, it last changed hands via Frank V Murphy & Co in 2006, when the Rebel Bar Group paid around €2m for it to the Kendellan family. A previous owner, Finbar Murphy, won Black and White Best Pub in 2002 and 2003 for Paddy the Farmer’s.

Details: www.allsopspace.ie