The pub industry is gaining interest among investors even in the outer suburbs. According to Commercial Real Estate, just recently the hospitality operators Colonial Leisure Group has acquired Newtown Hotel from the Keystone Group. It was the first step for the group to establish a presence in New South Wales.
Besides the award-winning Newtown Hotel business, Colonial was also interested in the Townsville Casino, Perth hotel landmarks Print Hall and The Raffles, Botanical in Melbourne and the Colonial Brewery in Margaret River. The deal between Colonial and Keystone on the Newton Hotel was managed by JLL national director John Musca.
Prior to this, the Melbourne-based Dixon Group acquired a series of Sydney food and beverage-centric leasehold hotels. With this the real estate website reports that suburban pubs are seeing increased demand.
Musca said, "The bar has noticeably raised in Sydney over the past three years for on-premise hotel offers, mirroring the small bar proposition-led approach but introducing scalability, so interest in acquiring leasehold opportunities is a natural evolution of that."
"We've now sold three hotels in Newtown, more recently the Queen Victoria to the Merivale group, so the gravitation of Sydney's best operators to the precinct highlights the strength of the area as a sustainable trading hub."
For those who want to hop into the pub business bandwagon, The Ulster Hotel in Ipswich is also one to check. It was a family-run business and now the hotel and the bar is looking to change hands but it is open for lease as the family does not intend to sell it. According to Domain, Ulster Hotel is famous for being featured in the Queensland government-sponsored TV ad saluting dry drivers. Family member Peter Johnston said, "It's a terrific opportunity for someone. Except stock, it has everything ready to go."