Sold in two weeks: De Angelis family buys Raby Tavern for $35m
Raby Tavern and shopping centre has been owned by the Walker family for 16 years. Photo: Supplied

Sold in two weeks: De Angelis family buys Raby Tavern for $35m

The well-connected De Angelis family has bought the Raby Tavern and shopping centre in Sydney’s south-west for about $35 million from long-time owners the Walker family.

The 8000-square-metre property on Spitfire Drive in Raby sold just two weeks into a four-week sales campaign and well in excess of market expectations of more than $30 million, highlighting the current strength of the pub real estate market.

The De Angelis Hotel Group owns a large gaming pub portfolio including Uncle Bucks Hotel in Mount Druitt, which it bought from the Lantern Hotel Group for $25.3 million in 2016, as well as the Moorebank Hotel, Green Valley Hotel, Picton Hotel and Bath Arms Hotel.

Family matriarch Robyn De Angelis is the sister of Financial Review Rich Lister and fellow pub baron Arthur Laundy. Her sons Philip, Marc and Peter are all involved in the family’s hotel business.

The Raby Tavern was offered with 28 poker machine licences and is the only pub in the 20,000-resident suburb, 55 kilometres south-west of the Sydney CBD.

It sale follows hot on the heels of the ASX-listed Redcape Hotel Group selling the St George Hotel in Belmore in Sydney’s inner south-west to Michael Wiggins and Joanne Cassar for $47.1 million.

HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe, who recently sold another south-west Sydney gaming pub, the Allawah Hotel, to Merivale Group’s Justin Hemmes for $34 million, negotiated the sale of the Raby Tavern on behalf of the Walker family, who have owned it for more than 16 years.

“Hotels located adjacent to shopping centres are always keenly sought after by astute investors who recognise the natural trading advantages enjoyed by their positioning,” Mr Dragicevich said.

“The ownership of this retail space at Raby enables the purchaser additional levers for expansion of the licensed footprint, and makes available the potential for a larger mixed-use development project in the future.”

Mr Jolliffe said there were two noteworthy features of the current market landscape; the first being that purchasers were typically multi-asset and multi-generational owners and the other being “the patent re-engagement the big four banks have exhibited in respect of actively seeking debt-funding opportunities alongside quality operators”.

“This is a key reason for the Australian east coast market having already surpassed $500 million in combined sales after the first four months of the current financial year,” he said.

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