Laundy family makes $13 million from pub sale

The Laundy family has picked up $13 million from the sale of a popular pub on the Central Coast.

The Bateau Bay pub was sold to a local investor.

Arthur Laundy said it was a strong and solid business.

“But given we have a few projects on the go at present thought it was the right time to sell,” Mr Laundy told Fairfax Media.

At the same time, the family is still active in the area.

Assets in its local stable include the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Terrigal, Settlers Tavern at Gosford and Long Jetty Hotel.

The sale of the pub, and the price it fetched, is a good sign of the pub real estate market which is now booming.

More than $1 billion worth of pubs have been sold in the past year.

And high profile, big ticket sales have included the sell-down of the Geoff Dixon, John Singleton Australian Pub Fund. The Lantern Hotel asset sell off has also been prominent.

And another round of assets is set to hit the market over the next year.

The pattern now is that investors selling out to local operators who have the ability transform the assets, make them less reliant on gaming and more focused on food and signature chefs.

CBRE Hotels national director Daniel Dragicevich and manager Ben McDonald advised the Laundy family on the sale.

As he sees it, the sub 10 per cent capitalisation rate marks “the strength of the NSW coastal pub market following the recent sales of the Swansea Hotel in Lake Macquarie and the Country Club in Shoal Bay".

"The sale of Bateau Bay, both in quantum of dollars and initial yield, adds weight to the flow of transactional activity in coastal pub markets at levels traditionally reserved for metropolitan assets," Mr Dragicevich told Fairfax Media.

8th September 2017

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