The sale of the Empire Hotel in Goulburn last month has put a spotlight on the demand for regional pubs with a gaming upside.

HTL Property's Sam Handy and Blake Edwards negotiated the transaction after a fiercely contested campaign, with the sale made a week prior to the campaign close date.

The process yielded seven offers to purchase, with a mixture of both local and Metropolitan Sydney interest with a first-time Sydney based buyer being the successful bidder. 

Long-time operator Allan Deeth advised that he was extremely pleased with the sale process and outcome.

"I've operated the business here for in excess of 20 years, so the sale is a mixture of emotions for me," he said.

"But we're delighted with the result and excited to see the incoming operator inject some much needed investment into the gaming room and building upon the platform we're leaving behind."

With current annual revenues of only $1.3 million, the hotel features a 3:00am liquor licence with the business seldom traded past 11:00pm.

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Source: HTL Property

The hotel was ranked #1,018 on the OLGR rankings for the June19 quarter, and there are 15 gaming machines attached to the licence with currently no outdoor gaming room smoking solution.

The hotel is situated on a 1,578 sqm land holding between the Coles anchored Goulburn Square Shopping Centre, and a 250 space Council car park.

With an existing population of approximately 30,000 and only six pubs, Goulburn is widely considered to have some of the best macro investment fundamentals within regional New South Wales.

Mr Edwards said the sale of the Empire Hotel is underwritten by very favourable population to pub ratios, strong growth and demand drivers.

“This was an intricate transaction, whereby HTL Property were engaged by both tenant and freehold owner to sell the re-stapled business and property in order to meet their respective exit objectives” he said.

"Goulburn is a strong regional gaming LGA (as evidenced by its Red Zone SA2 classification) and we look forward to the incoming operator creating a much-needed destination gaming room at the Southern end of the town” he said.

The sale closely follows some of HTL Property's other recent significant regional NSW transactions including the Bank Hotel (Maitland), Albion Hotel (Albury), Palm and Prawn Hotel (Wagga Wagga) and the Area Hotel (Griffith).

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