Regional Spotlight: Leeds

In recent years, West Yorkshire capital and former textile and wool industry centre Leeds has been transformed into a thriving cosmopolitan city with two universities, a vibrant nightlife and a redeveloped riverside area. And according to Simon Hall from the Leeds office of chartered surveyor Fleurets, a major shakeout in the licensed property market over the last 18 months has dramatically increased the availability of city-centre sites and opened up the market to new operators.

"As a result of the fallout in the caf‚-bar sector we're experiencing more sales activity on the high-street market than ever before," Hall says. "There's an unprecedented level of opportunity for individual operators who were previously unable to gain a foothold in the city centre due to high financial set-up costs."

One such area is Greek Street in the city's business district, says Hall, who says the majority of properties coming to the market are from the larger national operators, who have streamlined their operations by selling their failing, bottom-end units. This in turn has resulted in an oversupply of properties, with values of high-street units falling by anything between 20% and 90% of their value a couple of years ago. Another hot spot is the city's Millennium Square area, which is being redeveloped.

However, Hall says there are signs that the decline in the high-street market is starting to slow, and that's likely to lead to a reduced number of units becoming available.

"Individual operators therefore should look closely at the opportunities in today's market, as units of this quality may not be available at this price forever," he says.