Nelson Meers Group buys New Victoria Tavern for $50m

Pubs across the country are expected to run busy over the holiday period after pandemic-restricted trading over the past two years.

Long-term players in the pub sector are pouring fresh capital into the industry, with the Nelson Meers Group snapping up the New Victoria Tavern in the Sydney’s western suburbs for more than $50m.

The move comes as the national pub market shows signs of a strong run into Christmas despite concerns about higher interest rates and an economic slowdown next year.

It expands a portfolio which includes some of Sydney’s largest hotels, including the Hurstville Ritz, which was bought for $45m in 2017.

The business run by chief executive officer Simon Meers includes more than a dozen Sydney venues.

The biggest purchase came just this year, when the Meers organisation bought the Crossroads Hotel in Sydney’s southwestern suburb of Casula for nearly $160m, smashing the national pub sale record.

That purchase locked in the extraordinary leap in pub values and showed that experienced operators would keep paying up for the best properties.

The New Victoria Tavern joins more than a dozen Sydney venues that are part of the Meers portfolio.

Pubs came through the pandemic stronger as they generated sales from bottle shops, and also bounced back quickly on the back of exceptional domestic trade, now unimpeded by uncertain borders and difficulties in travelling.

The latest sale was brokered by agents Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe of HTL Property.

It follows a series of hotel sales over the last week, including Sydney’s Tahmoor Inn and Richmond’s Fitzroy Hotel, along with the Barron River Hotel in Cairns.

The New Victoria Tavern in the industrial suburb of Wetherill Park was sold by the private Taphouse Group, which recently sold both the Port Macquarie Hotel and Tacking Point Tavern on the NSW North Coast.

“Having sold two large format hotels for our client the Taphouse Group already this year, we’re very pleased to continue prosecuting the privately owned group’s strategic divestment strategy with the sale of this significant Sydney property,” Mr Dragicevich said.

He declined to identify the purchaser, saying only it was picked up by a prominent Sydney investment group.

“The national hotel landscape is not immune to the broad challenges faced by all asset classes from time to time, albeit one can mount a firm argument that it is better placed than nearly all others indexed to property and small ticket retail,” Mr Jolliffe said.