Ex-Wallaby buys Five Dock Hotel within a week
The listed Lantern Hotels Group has sold its top gaming hotel, the Five Dock in Sydney’s inner west, after just a week on the market for a massive $28.75 million.
The sale of the Five Dock, via Ray White Asia Pacific director Andrew Jolliffe, was struck at a 38% premium to the June 30 book value.
Industry sources suggest former Wallaby Bill Young, whose family business includes the Hotel Concord, The Wiseman’s Ferry Hotel and The Palace Hotel, Mortlake, picked up the property.
Mass selloff: Lantern offloads Uncle Bucks and Cairns Courthouse
The rapid fire sale was struck at a yield of about 8%, demonstrating the rapid tightening of yields on top class gaming pubs in Sydney.
Lantern has offloaded 12 pubs nationally in the past year and has just three Sydney pubs left to sell in a well-executed strategy to offload its portfolio.
The group has sold the Commodore and Uncle Bucks Hotel in the past month and has just sold the Ambarvale Hotel to private interests for $21.2 million. The private De Angelis Hotel Group bought Uncle Bucks in Mount Druitt for $25.3 million. That family-owned group already owns some of Sydney’s top pubs, including Moorebank Hotel, Green Valley Hotel and Bath Arms Hotel.
In effect, the market had been anticipating the sale of this prominent hospitality asset for some time
Lantern also sold several Queensland properties: the GPO Hotel in Fortitude Valley for $5.25 million, the Cairns Courthouse Hotel for $6.25 million and the Central Hotel in Bundaberg for $1.95 million.
Jolliffe says the sale of the Five Dock Hotel is based on the quality of the property.
“In effect, the market had been anticipating the sale of this prominent hospitality asset for some time, and the interest generated from the beginning of the sale campaign was commensurately strong,” he says.
The property has performed well since Lantern’s modest capital outlay on the premises and Jolliffe tips the purchaser will work to unlock the property’s inherent value.
The surge of Sydney hotel sales has also seen Iris Hotel Group snap up the Colombian on inner-city Oxford Street while key properties including the Clovelly, Tennyson and Figtree hotels are on the block.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
