Albury pub sells for $9.6m as regions boom
Pub fund Harvest Hotels has acquired the Brady’s Railway Hotel in Albury on the NSW/Victoria border for $9.6 million, amid a strong flow of capital from city-based investors and publicans into regional venues.
Harvest Hotels was set up in 2016 by Sydney-based publicans Chris Cornforth and Fraser Haughton to target “genuine opportunities” in key regional locations throughout NSW.
It owns two Tamworth venues, the Pig & Tinder Box, which is now up for sale and The Courthouse Hotel which recently opened following a major renovation.
“Our strategy has always been to work our way into pubs and specifically, larger format pubs,” Mr Haughton told the Country Leader after deciding to put the Pig & Tinder Box on the market.
The recently renovated Brady’s Railway Hotel occupies a large 2,875-square-metre corner block and includes a beer garden, bottle shop, function space and gaming and betting facilities.
It had been on for sale since March 2018 by long term owners, David and Paula Attwood.
“I’m too old and tired and cranky,” Mr Attwood told pub website Pubtic in March 2018. “We’ve been in the business nearly 40 years and I think it’s time. The hotel would benefit from a younger person’s outlook.”
Its sale adds to a strong run of regional NSW pub transactions and comes as the NSW government prepares to further ease COVID-19 restrictions.
From Friday, hospitality venues will be allowed one patron for every two square metres in outdoor areas from a previous one person per four square metres.
“The Railway Hotel is a large format regional asset that represents a unique trading proposition in one of regional NSW’s strongest performing locations – Albury,” said JLL Hotels agent Ben McDonald who negotiated the deal.
“The acquisition further highlights the ongoing confidence in the pub market despite fluctuating economic conditions and underscores the demand for operating real estate assets in key growth markets.”
