The Good Beer Group have finalised their exit strategy from North Sydney by successfully selling the Union Hotel in an off-market transaction negotiated by leading national pub brokerage firm HTL Property agents Dan Dragicevich, Andrew Jolliffe and Sam Handy. The purchaser was Watering Hole Hotels led generational publican, Ashton Waugh, taking their portfolio to fifteen venues spread throughout New South Wales.

“We’re delighted to acquire this significant Sydney freehold hotel, and in doing so, continue to deliberately expand our group into both metro and regional areas” advised Watering Holes founder, Ashton Waugh.

“In such fluid times from a global perspective, we are seeing a noticeable uptick in buyer enquiry as a patent flight towards hard asset backed hotel properties emerges, and which have, as an investment class and over multiple cycles, proven themselves to be both resilient and recession-proof” noted HTL Property National Director, Dan Dragicevich.

“Expected interest rate cuts generally result in buoyant on-premise trade and resultant yield compression; whilst assets such as the Union Hotel, with such commanding real estate attributes, also provide the comfort of a high asset floor which hasn’t proven available in the equity markets of late” concluded Dragicevich.

John Azars Good Beer Group maintains an impressive stable of predominantly CBD focused pub assets – including the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Coronation Hotel and the KB Hotel in Surry Hills. The group also owns the Harold Park Hotel, which is currently on the market through HTL Property.

Long considered a North Sydney Pacific Highway landmark, the Union Hotel occupies a prominent 784sqm landholding with two floors offering over 1200 sqm of trading footprint. The business generated in excess of $5,600,000 in annual revenues and features a midnight Hotel License and 26 gaming machines in operation.

“The North Sydney CBD is experiencing unprecedented and significant growth, driven by a combination of government investment, planned infrastructure and strong private development interest seeking to accommodate an additional 6,000* residents and 20,000* workers over the next decade” commented HTL Property Director, Sam Handy.

“As such, the macro investment fundamentals for an incoming hotelier are incredibly attractive, particularly considering there are only seven pubs within the North Sydney CBD servicing this already voluminous and growing local population” added Handy.

“With international political and financial actors of the highest order having such a meaningful impact on equity and other markets, the considered and better view amongst investors is one that combines the power of well-structured financial models with hard yielding robust and sustainable property investments” concluded HTL Property Managing Director, Andrew Jolliffe.