When you buy a cafe shop in Australia can you change it to a book shop?

Question

When you buy a cafe shop in Australia can you change it to a book shop?

Answer 1

More easily than the other way around, but.....

Whether you buy or rent the premises, what you can do in it is subject to

*zoning laws which control the general use of the area (shops, residential, mixed, industry etc)

*development approval (DA for short) from the local council.

Applications for DA are advertised to nearby premises and they may lodge objections. It takes 6 to 20 weeks to get, depending how much change you want to make.

As a bookshop is a clean quiet business, and will not attract a lot of vehicle traffic (not like a restaurant) it should be fairly trouble-free to get the approvals.

To get a cafe approved is harder; it also has to comply with laws and regulations for kitchen waste disposal, air conditioning, noise etc.

It is NOT a good idea to buy a cafe and make it into something else, as this would be wasting the money (and value) already put into it with getting the approvals and the expensive equipment.

It would be cheaper to buy the shop next door, which perhaps used to be an office or a dress shop, as nothing would have to be thrown away to make it into a bookshop.

There would be nothing to stop you setting up a bookshop area inside the cafe, so people can have a cofffee while choosing books. There are several like this here and are very   popular.

Answer 2

if you buy a shop you turn it into anything you want (that is legal)