Pub sales continue through pandemic
Social distancing and restricted service may have become a way of life for Sydney’s pubs in the wake of the coronavirus but well-heeled buyers are still diving into the sector, with about $300m worth of pubs selling since the pandemic struck.
In the latest trade, inner-Sydney’s The Evening Star Hotel, a rejuvenated bar in Surry Hills, has changed hands for more than $12m, with the buyer hoping to capitalise on its position near Central Station, where new precincts are being planned, and on the suburb’s growing residential population.
The purchase caps a series of pub transactions in which buyers have snapped up poker machine dependent venues but mainly steered clear of food and beverage-based hotels, as well as smaller and city bars that usually depend on passing trade.
In a twist on the usual coronavirus flattening, HTL Hotels chief executive Andrew Jolliffe said that although transaction volumes were down on last year, buyers were keener to pick up pubs than before the crisis.
The Evening Star sold to a new entrant to the pub industry hoping to capitalise on the 24 poker machine licences, which could be expanded, as well as the area’s lively night trade.
“The purchaser is a relatively new entrant to the market, which serves as an encouraging sign given this is an asset class with multiple natural barriers to entry,” said HTL Property pubs director Dan Dragicevich.
The deal also showed the turnaround performed by vendor Marvan, which picked up the hotel in 2014 for $5.5m and undertook a major renovation.
Suburban pubs are continuing to draw relatively large, albeit compliant, crowds and are using their spacious layouts to accommodate drinkers and gamblers. Notably, HTL Property this week sold Sydney’s Bligh Park Tavern for the De Angelis family.
“This sale marks our eighth midmarket metropolitan pub transaction in nearly as many months,” co-agent HTL Property’s Sam Handy said.
The DeAngelis family, which owns a large gaming pub portfolio in the western suburbs, has also picked up the Macquarie Hotel in the Liverpool CBD. It bought the pub from the Monarch Hotels fund for about $43m.
In July, BMG Developments bought the Tattersalls Hotel and Commercial Centre in the Penrith CBD from Pitt Capital Partners on behalf of Washington H Soul Pattinson and 360 Capital REIT for about $28m.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
