Pub and Bar Bridging Loans Devon

Pub and bar stock in Devon splits into four main groups. There are the destination food-led pubs of the South Hams, around Salcombe, Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Modbury and the surrounding villages, which trade on a food-and-coastal-tourism market with strong margins. There are the Dartmoor and Exmoor moorland inns, walker-oriented pubs in Tavistock, Princetown, Chagford, Lustleigh and South Brent, which trade on national-park tourism and a year-round walker base. There are the city-and-town suburban locals across Plymouth, Exeter and the Torbay urban catchment, which have seen the steepest closures across the last decade and are most likely to come up as change-of-use plays. And there are the seafront and harbour-side pubs of the English Riviera, Brixham, Paignton, Torquay, and the smaller North Devon coastal trade at Ilfracombe, Combe Martin and along the Hartland peninsula. Each reads differently to a bridging lender. Trading-asset value, vacant possession value and alternative-use value can sit a long way apart.

Devon carries a deep pub estate, an accident of its rural-and-tourism geography. The South Hams destination food-led pubs are among the strongest-trading pubs in the UK, with destination operators on coastal routes around Salcombe, Dartmouth, Kingsbridge and the South Devon AONB villages. The Dartmoor National Park pub estate runs separately, with moorland inns serving walkers, climbers and Dartmoor tourism through the year, anchored by the Tavistock, Princetown and Chagford trade. The Exmoor edge running into North Devon carries a parallel walker-and-tourism pub market. Suburban Plymouth and Exeter pubs have seen the steepest closures, with the most common exit being a change-of-use conversion to residential or small mixed-use under the Class MA permitted-development framework or full planning. The Brixham, Paignton and Torquay seafront pub market trades on coastal-tourism flow with strong seasonality. The North Devon surf coast pubs at Croyde, Woolacombe, Putsborough and Saunton run a younger food-and-drink trade through Easter to October. Across the wider Devon market, pub-specialist lenders read this geography accordingly. The destination food-led country pub in the South Hams reads as a different asset class to the closed suburban local on a Plymouth side street, even though both fall under the same property type on a planning application.

A typical Devon pub-and-bar bridge sits at £350,000 to £1.5 million, 55 to 65% LTV, 9 to 15 months term, 0.9 to 1.3% per month, arrangement fee 1.5 to 2%. Conversion cases include a monitored works tranche. Exit is typically refinance to term commercial debt with a pub-specialist lender, sale to an operator, or sale of converted residential units on a change-of-use exit. Completion in 14 to 21 days is normal where the title and licence position are clean.