Captain Cook Hotel in Botany sells for $17m

The pub, which was built in 1906, operates under a 24-hour liquor licence and has 18 gaming machines. A development application has been approved for a new gaming room.

It’s the third pub Mr Livingstone owns in Sydney – he bought the Charing Cross Hotel in Waverley in 2013 and Hotel William in Darlinghurst in 2017, which has since re-opened as Hyde Park House.

“It is nice to get some economies of scale and buying power. I’m in it for the long haul now but I still enjoy taking a few sporting events around the world every now and then,” he said.

HTL Property’s Sam Handy and Daniel Dragicevich negotiated the off-market transaction.

“The hotel’s gaming performance is well placed to improve following the introduction of a gaming room smoking solution, especially when considering the already very strong and proximate competitor set,” Mr Handy said.

Flurry of deals

Mr Dragicevich said the hotel market in Sydney was strong with a flurry of deals kickstarting 2020 as buyers competed over very few assets on the market.

It is the third freehold sale in metro Sydney this year following the acquisition of Alexandria’s Camelia Grove for $16 million and the purchase by former Wallaby front-rower Bill Young of Five Dock’s Illinois for about $15 million.

Mr Dragicevich said the Botany asset was not sold on traditional yield metrics, but noted that freehold pubs in the Sydney Metro area were, more broadly, trading on yields of between 7.5 per cent and 8.5 per cent.