Cheap Bars and Restaurants for Sale - Bargains?

I've seen some businesses in Benalmadena going really cheap. Especially bars and restaurants. I am interested in Benalmadena because my mother's retirement flat has been vacant for over a year, so effectively I've got cheap accommodation.

Are there any 'bargains' to be had that will make money? I presume the reason people are getting out is that they were not making any money? And if they were bargains, wouldn't they have been sold already?

A member of this forum has advised me in another thread not to touch bars and restaurants in the Malaga area because of lack of trade due to the economic decline in Spain. Has anyone had any personal experience of running a business in Spain? Is it as dire as people are saying? Should I just forget the idea and try and sell the flat? Advice I have recieved on another thread has strongly suggested I do so (sell that is).

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I don't know what it is with bars and restaurants in Spain, many that I have seen and been in and on many occasions always seem to be very busy, do decent food, and then some weeks later...Bang gone...And if they don't go bust they change hands and more often not for the better.

One thing I do know for sure about business is, and the "Experts" wont ever tell you this, is that to much compertion is bad for business, the "Experts" always say compertion is good for business, trust me it aint!

You are to far from one place I know in Spain to check it out but some on here will know it, it's near Punta Prima Costa Blanca South, it has three floors of mixed bars and restaurants, a large area, good parking, good area, plenty of house's around,  and in the summer a reasonable amount of trade, all in all what some business "Expert" would tell you is a blindly good idea. They even did a lengthy TV show about a guy opening up an Indian Restaurant in the place...He's gone.

I bet about half of the original places that opened, and over the years that changed hands are shut, I saw the place being built from the ground up, saw the money spent on fitting out the new places, could see what was going to happen, and it has, the fact that so many are closed stops a lot of people going to eat anywhere in the place now, the whole place has really only catered for the Brits, and thats the problem if you think about it.

To my way of thinking there are only two sorts of Restaurants / Bars, one on a main high street which can carry colossal  overheads, but can be seen by everyone passing so you have a good chance of someone stopping in, you really do have to be very good at what you do in every way to cover these costs, and the other perhaps down the side street, or away a little from the main drag, that provides very good priced meals / drinks etc,  has a good reputation, and gets a loyal regular customer base, ticks over all the year round, make a reasonable living.... Even then thats no guarantee of success.

One of my shops I had done very well of the main drag, one in the main street did about the same, the others up and down..so so. I made sure I had no compertion near by in the same trade, doesn't guarantee success though.

Not Spain I know but right now it has been said this week that 25 pubs a week in the UK are closing, the  pub next to one of my business's, I know the owners very well, had just finished the re-furb in Sept 2013, went bankrupt this monday, the previous owners who had it for about 5 years and sold it, did very well. 

 

This message was last edited by baz1946 on 24/01/2014.

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Not sure about restaurants, but a Spanish bar has to be the worst way to invest your money.  In the 5 years I've been in Spain, I've seen so many bars open, then close 6 months or a year later.

The problem is there are just too many bars in Spain, especially given the current situation the country finds itself in.  According to this article on ABC, there is 1 bar for every 132 inhabitants in Spain.

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There are all sorts of reasons. The Spanish tend to avoid Brit bars like the plague. Why come to Spain to drink in Brit bars with their bloody football ( I hate football), quizzes, Kareoki - yuk etc? Where I am - Orihuela Costa - there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a music license so one complaint and a visit from the police. At the moment there are very few holidaymakers around. The place is dead at night and as you say so many bars. I think the reason Spanish bars and eateries survive is that they are family businesses. They own the property and the family all help out. The Brit bars all tend to be the same, same food, British lager etc. and they pay huge rents + all the other overheads. You can always pick out the good Spanish bars. The police take their breaks in them. Just my 2 cents worth.

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Rental on these places is, like UK, very expensive. We have loads of units on the outskirts of Quesada standing empty. One, very good and upmarket Italian restaurant was paying 750 euro a week rent. You've got to sell a lot of lasagne for that. He was just about breaking even until the owners put the rent up to 1000 euro a week. Closed down and moved 5km up the road and the old place is, like so many others, boarded up.
Many Brits open bars and come and go. Sounds nice to sit and chat with the customers and forget about the cleaning, staying up to do the books, get up early for the delivery man and so on. Not such a nice, easy life that they'd thought.
you have to budget on 30% for stock, 30% for staff and cleaning and 30% for rent and rates leaving you 10% profit. Again, you have to sell a lot of English breakfasts for 4 euro or a lot of pints for 2.50 to get anything like a living wage.
In the main street of Quesada there are more than 40 bars and restaurants all competing for customers. You have to be pretty special to attract them in, especially outside the main tourist season.


This message was last edited by mariedav on 24/01/2014.

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I looked at doing this bar thing in los alcazares ( Murcia )   on the main square near the 501 Hotel its just to much money pcm rents are a joke main are 1000 euro plus iva  then you have your self-employed money  I think that was  250 euro pcm then you have utility bills plus any staff wages. I have friends who have businesses on the square its getting very hard for them, over the last few years more and more new bars have opened ( then shut after about a year)  less and less people are going to their holiday homes, so any business that is to be had is just being spread further and further . and if the airport shuts at San Javier god help all the businesses in that area. I  decided to  buy a couple of apts in the UK instead which I rent out, much easier way off making money and you never know the price of property might go up as well. GIVE BARS IN SPAIN A MISS

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This time of year the square in Los Alcazares has been a ghost town wth places openning an closing but the more estrablished places like Diva and Penny Farthing, Roasalins, Flavour seem to survive

I think that it depends where the places are the closer to the 525 end seem to survive better but I wouldn't be putting my hard earned cash into that type of venture

One of the significant changes that we have seen this year from renters is that they are temding to cook and eat in far more  rather than going out to eat every night but I still think that the same numbers are visiting, they have just changed their spending paterns

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One born every minute LOL would you take on a business in the U.K without asking to to see the last 3 years accounts .

 

This message was last edited by windtalker on 25/01/2014.

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Roy, I'm over in LA again shortly - which bars/restaurants have closed since we were last over in October please?
Thanks.

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Awesome replies, the message is pretty clear. Thanks to all who have replied. Reckon I'll leave my money in my current investments and look at maybe retiring to the flat later if we can't sell it.

latest update on Mum's flat - my sister has decided to move in and pay enough rent to cover all the costs. How long she'll need to do this? Only time will tell.

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Hi Roy, any chance of the update on the bars & restaurants that have closed in LA that l asked for please? Thanks!

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Pearls Plaice  is re-opening on Tuesday 11th February . Maybe others bars will will follow suit,they normally do.

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