Family-owned pub sells for $64m in Sydney’s biggest deal this year
Hotelier Vicki Webster, sister and business partner of the late and long-serving Australian Hotels Association NSW executive Richard Webster, has sold her family’s venue in Sydney’s west for $64 million, in the city’s biggest pub sale so far this year.
The sale of Richard’s on the Park in Canley Vale represents the family’s final exit from the pub industry after the passing of Richard Webster in 2022. It’s also the second-biggest deal in the buoyant pub sector this year, after the $140 million sale of the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay.
Sitting on a 4389 square metre block, the hotel has plenty of parking and 30 gaming machines, a TAB business and first floor accommodation. The Websters purchased the venue in 1990 for just shy of $1 million, according to Cotality data.
Property records show the purchaser is Lewis Hotels, headed by publican John Lewis, whose operation has venues across NSW, including Kings Tavern in Potts Point, Quakers Inn in Quakers Hill and Beverley Hills Hotel in Beverley Hills. One of the Sydney publican’s bigger transactions was the $40 million purchase of the Ramada Hotel & Suites in Cabramatta, Sydney’s south-west, in 2021.
JLL’s John Musca and Ben McDonald brokered the sale of Richard’s on the Park.
McDonald declined to comment on the buyer’s identity. He said Richard’s on the Park had, over the last decade, been one of the most highly sought-after hotels in the NSW pub market.
“Its strong underlying trading fundamentals, scale of offering, and proximity to Canley Vale train station and retail precinct had underpinned its ranking as one of south-western Sydney’s greatest pubs,” he said.
“With over $1.7 billion in transactions thus far in 2025, deal volumes are set to far exceed 2024 levels with the market currently 55 per cent up year-on-year, highlighting the ongoing strength of the sector and significant pent-up demand from unsatiated capital.”
Strong asset class
The 10-year historical average for the wider industry, accounting for bars and nightclubs as well, is $1.48 billion across 160 transactions, according to M3 Property research.
Pubs were a high priority for investors seeking exposure to one of the strongest performing operating real estate asset classes in the country, McDonald said.
The deal follows a spate of pub transactions in the past few months, including the acquisition this month by Redcape Hospitality, a hotel fund run by ASX-listed MA Financial, of one of Brisbane’s oldest and best-known pubs, The Plough Inn, for $40 million from Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis’ Eumundi Group and KickOn Group. The fund also bought The Orion Hotel in south-east Queensland for $30 million in August.
In another notable deal, former Wallaby turned publican Bill Young acquired The Gem Hotel in the NSW Riverina region for $50 million in August.
