Moree’s Royal Hotel has become the third pub in the New England region to change hands in the past 10 days, with purchaser Jim Knox making his second acquisition in the area among those.
HTL Property has managed each of the sales, with the agency’s Xavier Plunkett brokering the latest deal via a buy-side mandate for established hotelier Jim Knox.
The Royal Hotel comprises of a large traditional hotel offering with public bar, commercial kitchen, bistro, TAB, and gaming room with valuable 15 poker machine licences and a freestanding Motel with 16 rooms.
It is now in the hands of a purchaser who is “very familiar” with the town, and has other agriculture-related business interests locally.
Plunkett said robust local GDP drivers in concert with the enormous irrigated cotton farming enterprises, strong blue-collar employment, significant infrastructure spending such as the $15 billion Inland Rail Project and the nearby $3.6 billion Santos Pilliga Gas Project and increasing post COVID domestic tourism numbers all appealed to the successful purchaser.
“Moree is a historically resilient economy,” Knox said.
“We are particularly familiar with the town, and have adopted a positive view regarding the prospects for both the pub and the region.”
Knox has just bought the Whitebull Hotel, with the $13.25 million transaction setting a record price for Armidale. The town has also seen Roche Group buy the Royal Hotel for more than $5 million.
Plunkett said that despite Moree being one of the highest performing pub towns in New South Wales on a per capita basis, the major pub groups have historically shown a reluctance to enter the town largely due to geographical constraints.
“It is however our considered view as agents, that these high-quality hotels in regional towns actually represent some of the most astute purchasing opportunities on offer across any real estate-backed asset class,” he said.
“Attractive yields, enormous infrastructure spending, consistent and maintainable cash flows, diversified revenue streams, and topically, comparatively limited disruption from COVID-19 related lockdowns.”
Regional pub asset transactions have kept pace with the metro segment of late with a wealth of activity across NSW. Sales have taken place in Byron Bay, the Hunter Valley, Wagga Wagga and Wollongong, on top of the Laundy family’s $22 million acquisition of the Springvale Heights Tavern in Albury.
“In an investment context characterized by strong market sentiment and a clear lack of quality stock on the market at any given time, decisive off-market transactions will make up the majority of total sales volume over the next 12 to 18 months,” HTL Property director, Blake Edwards.
