The two states where old pubs could be revived next year

Reforms such as the rezoning of around 171 suburbs in NSW to allow for higher density developments have prompted Redcape as well as ASX-listed Endeavour to submit development applications to build apartments above some of their venues.

Endeavour, through its hospitality arm ALH Hotels, said earlier this month that it had identified ten sites for redevelopment, four of which have the potential for residential apartments including The Doncaster Hotel and a Dan Murphys site in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

The company had made headway on five of its ten highest priority redevelopment opportunities, with four development applications lodged, chief executive Kate Beattie told The Australian Financial Review in early December.

“In aggregate, these five sites have been independently valued at between $100 million and $150 million, and we believe there is further upside to those valuations once our DAs are approved,” she said.

$2.058 billion over 179 deals in 2025

Groups such as Redcape, Harvest and Australian Venue Co all bought this year, and Endeavour was likely to “participate meaningfully” in 2026, HTL Property managing director Andrew Jolliffe said.

“As the largest owner and operator of hotels in Australia, and enjoying an inimitable existing portfolio of hotels nationally, an active Endeavour will heavily influence the market narrative for 2026,” Jolliffe said.

Rising confidence in the market for pubs, taverns and bars drove transaction volume higher than the past two years, new industry figures for the 2025 calendar year show.

About $2.058 billion over 179 deals was transacted year-to-date – up 40 per cent on 2024’s national total of $1.47 billion over 126 transactions, and higher than 2023’s $1.998 billion across 181 deals, according to agency M3 Property.

NSW led the nation at $920.78 million across 76 transactions, while Queensland followed with $820.33 million across 48 transactions.

“Private buyers dominated the sector in 2025, accounting for 87.8 per cent of acquisitions, while international investors represented the remaining 12.2 per cent,” M3 Property’s James Ruben told the Financial Review.

The epicentre of the buoyant pub market was in metropolitan Sydney in 2025, where active groups like Marlow Hotel Group, JDA Hotels and Sonnel Hospitality were responsible for some of the biggest deals such as the $35 million sale of the Firehouse Hotel in North Sydney.

The weight of transactions in metropolitan Sydney in 2025 was unprecedented, Jolliffe said.

“Whilst the emergence of interest in south-east Queensland hotels remains a firm national market thematic … Sydney metro sales alone topped $743 million for the period,” he said.

Family-run group Momento Hospitality sold the Silverwater Hotel in Sydney’s west for around $75 million to Marlow Hotel Group in the second-largest deal inked in Australia so far this year, while Richard’s on the Park sold for $64 million, changing hands between hotelier Vicki Webster and Lewis Hotels.

One Melbourne sale to sneak into the top 20 biggest pub deals this year was funds manager Charter Hall’s $35 million purchase of the city’s iconic Garden State Hotel, offloaded by the Zagame family in December.

But the most significant sale in 2025 was Byron bay’s Beach Hotel changing hands from MA Financial-backed Redcape for $140 million to businessman Scott Didier. While the deal is set to officially settle next year, the family has already taken over operations from Redcape.

Redcape expanded its portfolio throughout 2025, especially in south-east Queensland, with the $30 million purchase of The Orion Hotel as well as its $40 million acquisition of Brisbane’s The Plough Inn – one of the city’s oldest and best-known pubs.

Redcape managing director Chris Unger said the company had mainly focused its expansion into south-east Queensland, deploying capital from sales this year and last into new opportunities which had been “hugely successful”.

“The fund is in a fantastic spot for investors, it’s trading the house down,” he told the Financial Review. “Last quarter, we were 21 per cent up like-for-like EBITDA which has continued since then as well.

“We’ve been buying things this year that give to the overall strategy, which has been to grow yield and to diversify. We’ve also got a long list of venues to refurb(ish) in front of us.”

Some rising stars in the pub world are rivalling multi-generational family empires and hospitality companies in the amount they are spending on venue acquisitions.

In 2022, Glenn Piper – dubbed as the “next Justin Hemmes” – spent $100 million expanding his Epochal Hotels brand. This year, he snapped up the Bermagui Beach Hotel in NSW’s Sapphire Coast for around $20 million, adding to his about $200 million hospitality portfolio.

JLL’s head of pubs Ben McDonald said capitalisation rates in the pub space compressed in 2025 compared to 2024, with movement up to 100 basis points at the top end of freehold going concern asset sales.