Blackpool watches building backlog of hotels for sale

Interesting figures to emerge from the Las Vegas of Lancashire this week: despite a healthy tourism season, Blackpool now has guest houses, self-catering apartments and hotels for sale to the tune of £72 million.

Number-crunchers say 300 holiday accommodation outlets have gone on the market in the last 12 months alone, but shifting them is proving a problem for landlords in the amusement-park mecca.

Step back two years and the total cost of guest houses and hotels for sale in the resort stood around the £55 million mark. And where are those in the property know pointing the blame?

Why, the banks of course - the surge in the overall cost of hotels for sale along the Golden Mile would appear to be down to lenders' reluctance to give buyers a leg up the holiday accommodation ladder.

"I don't think I have seen through a single hotel sale in the past few months," Paul Crossley - managing director at Kenricks Commercial Property - tells the Blackpool Gazette. "There are potential buyers with cash out there but it doesn't matter how good the deposit is, the banks don't want to lend."

So there you have it - a backlog in Blackpool hotels for sale that ranges from small six-bedroom guest houses to bigger hotels boasting 40 rooms or more. Watch this space for updates ...