Patrons outside the Royal Oak Hotel in Double Bay, which has just sold for $100m.
A wealthy publican family have shelled out about $100m to buy the Royal Oak Double Bay hotel in Sydney’s wealthy Eastern Suburbs.
Described as a ‘big country pub in the city’ the hotel had been owned by the Malouf brothers – Jamie, Justin and Ed – since they purchased it back in 2011.
Replete with 21 pokies, the hotel fronting Bay Street, Double Bay, was sold in an off-market deal to the Ryan family, which owns a spread of pubs throughout Sydney including the Ship Inn, The Orient, and The Paragon Hotel in Sydney’s Circular Quay, as well as hotels in suburban Miranda, in the city’s Chinatown and one in Melbourne.
The Ryan family was attracted to the Royal Oak because of its position in Double Bay where it once owned the iconic Golden Sheaf hotel fronting New South Head Road.
“The Royal Oak is a community pub. It’s like a big country pub in the city. I assume that was part of the attraction,” said HTL Property managing director Andrew Jolliffe who sold the pub along with HTL director, Dan Dragicevich.
The transaction comes at an active point in Double Bay’s evolution, with a pipeline of high-end residential, accommodation, hotel and mixed-use investment set to reshape the enclave, and further strengthen its position as one of Sydney’s premier lifestyle destinations.
Mr Dragicevich said the scale of capital recently invested in Double Bay was impressive, adding that the hotel is famous nationwide and occupies a strategic position in the suburb’s epicentre.
“Double Bay is going through a generational period of investment, and the quality and scale of capital being deployed across the precinct is significant,” Mr Dragicevich said.
“The dynamic combination of population growth, premium commercial and residential development; and substantial investment into the surrounding retail and hospitality precinct provides for compelling long-term revenue growth and value trajectory,” he said.
The buyer Patrick Ryan acknowledged the hotel’s prominence and history, adding that the Ryan family was delighted to have acquired such a well known and well patronised Sydney hotel.
Sydney hotel broker Andrew Jolliffe, who co-founded HTL Property, has just sold the Royal Oak in Double Bay.
“The family are particularly excited about being back in a Double Bay pub,” Mr Ryan said.
Vendor Ed Malouf said it was a “great result” that the hotel will be handed over to the Ryan family, who were well recognised, astute hotel operators in the pub industry.
Meanwhile, Mr Jolliffe said the transaction reflected a continued demand from sophisticated buyers for irreplaceable metropolitan hotel assets.
“Investors are increasingly looking to investment factors in addition to what is simply the existing earnings profile, and in doing so are considering the quality of the underlying real estate, as well as the rarity and availability of true trophy status, generational hospitality assets,” he said.
“The Ryan family has secured what is patently an iconic hotel, at an important chronological point in the continued evolution of Double Bay,” he said, adding that HTL has more hotel buyers than sellers at present.