Laundys snap up $13m NSW Riverina pub despite ‘too much red tape’
Wealthy hoteliers the Laundy family have snapped up the Ashmont Inn Hotel in NSW’s Riverina region for about $13 million, marking the first transaction of the year for the hospitality dynasty and its expanding portfolio of pubs.
While the Laundy family have added at least three venues to their holdings in the past 12 months, billionaire publican Arthur Laundy said he is nevertheless proceeding cautiously when it comes to further acquisitions amid uncertain economic and geopolitical times and the amount of red tape in the industry.
“All this red tape – I just find it very, very hard. It may be saving somebody something, but it’s costing me,” he told The Australian Financial Review. “So I’m not jumping ahead at the present time, unless something really jumps out.”
However, Laundy, who ranked No. 94 on the AFR Rich List 2025 with a $1.75 billion net worth, said the Ashmont Inn Hotel appealed to him because it had been around for a long time, and he felt he could do something with it.
“One of my partners, Sean O’Hara, is in Wagga, and we’ve got a few hotels in Wagga, and he brought it to me, and we went through it and that’s our pattern,” he said.
Arthur’s son Stu Laundy, who is also in the family business, Laundy Hotels, said the family would see how the Wagga Wagga venue fared before considering any other opportunities.
“Our family loves the industry, and as such has a long history of backing people, and has done so very successfully with numerous parties across multiple sub-sectors within the asset class,” he said.
The Mathot family established the Wagga Wagga venue in 1978 and have held it ever since. Sitting on about 4995 square metres of land, it comprises a bistro, public bar, wagering facilities, 20 gaming machines and a liquor store, with development approval for an outdoor beer garden.
HTL Property’s Blake Edwards, who managed the off-market deal with Paddy Dalton and Sam Handy, said the transaction showed how investors are now focusing their interest on major inland cities.
“Wagga Wagga has matured into a true regional capital. Population growth, infrastructure investment and institutional presence are translating directly into sustained hotel demand,” he said. “Buyers are increasingly prepared to underwrite long-term fundamentals rather than short-term volatility.”
The Laundys move into Wagga Wagga comes after a bumper year in the pub trade, with over $2 billion worth of deals struck across the wider industry, including taverns and bars, in 2025. The majority of those deals were concentrated in NSW.
In November, Laundy Hotels sold The Settler’s Tavern in West Gosford, NSW’s Central Coast, for about $18.5 million to Citi banker-turned-publican Damian Kelly.
Laundy, along with his daughter and his son-in-law, Justine and Nick Tindall, purchased the venue in 2016 and upgraded its kitchen and lounge areas before its sale.
All four of his children and four of his 13 grandchildren are involved in the family business.
In 2023, the family splashed about $150 million on five pubs, including Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Northies in Cronulla, Park House Mona Vale in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and the Lennox Head Hotel and Hotel Illawong on the NSW north coast.
