With its Roman ruins, city walls and medieval architecture, historic Chester is one of the North-west's prettiest towns and most affluent enclaves.
Graham Allman, corporate director at licensed property agent Guy Simmonds, says the affluent nature of the area offers great opportunities for hospitality businesses as the locals have a high level of disposable income and there is an established eating-out culture. Operators that have converted properties into gastropubs have done particularly well, he says.
Chester boasts an impressive stock of period buildings and "character" properties and Allman says the old half-timbered Elizabethan-style properties are particularly popular.
As is the case elsewhere in the UK, the centre of Chester is in the midst of "a big shiver", as Allman puts it, with the bigger players offloading properties to be snapped by independents who feel they can make a better go of it.
In terms of opportunities, "Anything that is off the wall will go down well," says Allman, who believes there is a glut of modern-style wine bars in the town. He does see a demand for traditional-style pubs, however, and anyone who decides to take over a property in Chester and revert it into "a proper pub", with real fires, proper beer, and good traditional food "will make a killing".
On the hotel front there are fewer opportunities for buyers as hotel owners tend to be long stayers. Pubs offer a better bet, and for those looking for a bargain Allman recommends taking a ride out to the villages in the M56 corridor where there are some very good leasehold properties on offer in "honeypot" villages.