With a career spanning over 50 years, David Coffer was widely acknowledged as the driving force behind the recognition of leisure property as a distinct and important property sector in the UK. He has passed away aged 76.
Having established the sector’s first dedicated advisory business, he was known by his peers as “Mr Leisure” – and dealt exclusively with all aspects of licensed and leisure property throughout the UK, Europe and North America for over four decades.
He was also the founder and president of the Restaurant Property Advisors Society and a Fellow of the RICS. He has chaired numerous industry committees and he also founded and created the RICS Property Quiz which is now the major individual source for funds for Lionheart.
In a previous role he was chairman and a major shareholder of Earls Court & Olympia, and is known for charity work through the Coffer Foundation.
In 2012, he was awarded with a special prize for Outstanding Services to the Leisure Industry at the annual Peach Network 2020 Conference Hero and Icon Awards. In 2010, he was named one of London’s 1,000 most influential people by the Evening Standard newspaper and he was Property Week’s 2008 Leisure Personality of the Year.
