A popular Edinburgh city centre steakhouse has been brought to market by DM Hall, one of Scotland’s leading firms of chartered surveyors, as a result of the owner’s impending retirement.
McKirdy’s Steakhouse, located at 151-155 Morrison Street, and close to Haymarket and Edinburgh’s economic hub, has traded for 24 years.
Offers over £450,000 are invited for the business which is supplied by McKirdy Butchers, which has been active in Edinburgh and East Lothian since 1895.
Morrison Street, a busy one-way thoroughfare which connects Lothian Road with Haymarket Terrace/West Maitland Street, carries a substantial volume of traffic on a daily basis being one of the main arterial routes out of the City Centre towards the West.
The area is mixed residential and commercial in nature and adjacent to it there are a number of other restaurants and public houses. The Edinburgh International Conference Centre and various hotels are located a short walk from the premises.
McKirdy’s Steakhouse, which has recently been re-furbished, is arranged over the ground floor. The frontage incorporates large display windows providing good natural light to the restaurant.
The restaurant business, which has a reputation for the very highest quality meat available and trades from Wednesday to Sunday, is reluctantly being brought to the market as a result of retirement, its success is reflected in its profitability.
Margaret Mitchell of DM Hall who is overseeing the marketing process, said: “This is a great opportunity to acquire a successful, busy and readily managed restaurant with an established reputation.
“Its location, on the edge of the soon to be completed Haymarket Edinburgh development, an impressive £350m mixed-use development which will include hotels, retail space and offices will bring further investment and buzz to the area. As a result, any future owner will benefit significantly.
“Our client is seeking offers over £450,000 including goodwill, fixtures and fittings. Trading accounts are available upon request to seriously interested parties. Viewing is strictly by appointment and arrangements can be made by contacting me, Margaret Mitchell MRICS, Surveyor, on 07919574184 or Margaret.mitchell@dmhall.co.uk.”
With 24 offices and over 250 members of staff including 24 Partners, DM Hall this year celebrates 125 years since its foundation in 1897.
It was always on the cards that if restrictions were to be introduced on short-term letting in Scotland, Edinburgh would be first out of the blocks. And, sure enough, the council last month introduced a city-wide “control zone”.
The capital, which for obvious reasons is the country’s tourist Mecca, has become a magnet for Airbnb-style short-term lets over the last decade, leading to concerns about housing shortages and perceptions about anti-social behaviour.
Under draft proposals which will now go to Scottish Government Ministers for final approval, property owners will soon need planning permission to be able to operate short-term lettings and will have to apply for a change of use certificate from the planning department.
What is less well known is that the council has always had the power to require planning permission in the event of a material change in environment, such as short-term rentals. The difference is that, from now on, this will be mandatory.
It should be noted that the proposals only apply to secondary lettings, i.e., properties which are not an owner’s primary residence. People will still be able to let out their homes while on holiday, or rooms in their home while they remain in residence.
However, while the new restrictions appear to be forging ahead, it still remains unclear what policies the local authority will eventually apply. The current Development Plan – the overarching guide to future council thinking – makes no mention whatsoever of short-term lets.
Nor, surprisingly, does the document designed to replace it, the City Plan 2030, which again does not concern itself with the issue – making it increasingly difficult for property owners to plan ahead.
One can only speculate at the moment about whether permissions will be granted for continued short-term use, and on what grounds. Nor is there any clarity about whether numerical limits will be imposed.
Were there to be limits, it would be reasonable to assume that applications would be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so landlords hoping to remain in the market might be advised to act sooner, rather than later.
There is, of course, an existing provision in law whereby if a short-term let has been operating for more than 10 years, with no action against it by the council and no action to conceal its operation, then it is entitled to a Certificate of Lawfulness to continue operation, though necessary evidence will be required.
As of the start of this month, there have been nine applications so far this year for planning permissions for short-term lets, only two of which have been granted – and they both involved Certificates of Lawfulness.
What to do if applications fail is clearly now a matter of immediate concern for property owners and DM Hall’s specialist rural arm Baird Lumsden is currently embarked on an information campaign around the sales, letting and management options which remain open.
It has gone into the issue in depth, in anticipation that Highland Council will be the next authority to impose short-term let restrictions around the Badenoch and Strathspey area, and is reaching out to concerned parties.
Informed and impartial advice of this nature is something of a port in a storm for property owners who are caught between a rock and a hard place as the restriction net tightens.
There has been anecdotal evidence of landlords exiting the short-term market and moving to longer lets in the private rental sector. But regulation in this sphere of activity is getting stricter all the time, and the imminent New Deal for Tenants will do nothing to ease landlord pain.
On a superficial level, it is easy to understand the council’s hope that properties taken out of short-term lets will find their way back into the housing stock, thus easing ongoing shortages.
But a counter-argument, articulated by bodies such as the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, is that lack of house-building is as much of a contributory factor to shortages, and that short-term lets bring in huge volumes of valuable tourism revenue to the city.
As things are, some smaller operators may indeed be forced to sell up and quit the market, although larger letting concerns will almost certainly continue to jump through the necessary hoops.
In this volatile environment, expert professional advice is the only real safeguard, and prudent property owners and landlords will seek it out as timeously as possible.
Calum Allmond is Head of Architectural Services at DM Hall Chartered Surveyors.
For further information, contact DM Hall Chartered Surveyors, 27 Canmore Street, Dunfermline KY12 7NU. T: 01383 621262. E: dunfermline@dmhall.co.uk.
As one of the few husband and wife teams working in the specialist surveying sector of business sales and valuation with DM Hall, Margaret and Jonathan Mitchell see eye-to eye about their ambitions for their revitalised department.
But there is scope for difference of opinion on some matters. Asked if they take work home to the kitchen table, Jonathan emphatically replied: “Yes!” At the same moment, and equally emphatically, Margaret said: “No!”
The fact that they then both burst out laughing perhaps reflects the comfortable nature of a relationship which is introducing a new dynamism into the Scotland-wide firm’s business sales and valuation department.
Since the Edinburgh-based team took on responsibility at the beginning of the year for the division, which advises clients at national and local level on valuation, sales, and acquisitions, it has boosted both completed and pipeline sales.
The speed at which they have reinvigorated the department – Margaret moved over to the department in March this year and Jonathan returned to DM Hall after several years in the wider UK – has parallels in their own relationship.
They met while working at DM Hall in Fife and, in a classic whirlwind romance, became engaged to be married within 10 days.
“Although our working life might come up as a subject of conversation at home,” said Jonathan, “it is not all-consuming and, certainly in the office and in our dealings with clients, we maintain a strictly professional demeanour.
“But obviously, we know each other well, and that makes it so much easier to work together as a cohesive team, with shared ambitions and aims, for the benefit of our clients.”
Although Scotland is still very much in the recovery phase from Covid, the business sales market is vibrant and continues to display healthy signs of activity and volume, said Margaret.
“Most market sectors, particularly including licensed and leisure, were impacted by the on-off shutdowns over the past year and a half and, now that restrictions have been lifted, there is a surge in turnover since people are just desperate to get out and spend.
“With this sudden profitability, many businesses are refilling their financial coffers and paying back loans, but many business owners are also reflecting on where they want to go in life and concluding that it is a very good time to sell.”
Retirement is a significant driver in DM Hall sales, which tend to specialise in individual businesses, and the department has developed a niche in understanding the emotional bonds which owners build up over decades of business life.
“Part of where we fit is to listen and to understand their concerns. That is a key component of our brand. We provide professional, strategic advice, whether it is selling, buying or valuing, but we also have a comprehensive and detailed local knowledge and an unrivalled network of contacts throughout the country.
“We are not a call centre, with one-size-fits-all responses, and neither are we jacks of all trades. We understand the local market, the integral importance of profit and loss and the professional and personal imperatives of our clients.”
While at the moment in the marketplace willing sellers in search of willing buyers are in the ascendancy, the Mitchells argue that businesses which used the hiatus of the pandemic to refurbish, put training schemes in place, take the opportunity to trim costs and generally put the wheels in motion to reposition their offering will continue to thrive and will see greatest demand if presented to the market.
Meanwhile, despite kitchen table differences of opinion, the Mitchells agree about one thing: that the business sales and valuation department of DM Hall has a bright and sustainable future!
Jonathan Mitchell is an Associate RICS Valuer and Margaret Mitchell MRICS is a Chartered Surveyor in the Edinburgh Commercial office of DM Hall Chartered Surveyors.
For further information, contact DM Hall Chartered Surveyors, 17 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh EH12 6DD. T: 0131 477 6000. E: edinburgh@dmhall.co.uk.
