Long time owners the Bartons have sold their handsome Wallacia Hotel in greater western Sydney to the Raffens, as they exit the game.
Set on a commanding site on Mulgoa Road, the large-format Hotel was established in 1930.
Boasting capacity for more than 1k people and 3am extended trading hours, it provides public bar and wagering, bistro, a new Paul Kelly-designed gaming room with 21 machines, and on the upper floors 28 well-appointed accommodation rooms, all with ensuites, reported as enjoying strong occupancy.
The Hotel sits on an elevated 6,513sqm lot near the proposed Bradford City Centre masterplan, set to surround the nearby Western Sydney International Airport (Badgerys Creek). Its catchment takes in the cusp of the south-west Sydney growth corridor, with a forecast 300k new residents destined for the region.
The Hotel records annual revenues in excess of $5.2 million, despite a large, licensed section of the ground floor currently unused.
It has been operated for close to twenty years by prominent Sutherland Shire developers Jeff and Bob Barton, who have now sold to “a consortium of private hoteliers” understood to have both regional pub interests and existing land holdings in the Wallacia catchment.
“We’re really pleased to be exiting the hospitality space, and are keen to focus on our core business, which is predominantly residential developments,” explained Jeff Barton.
The buyers, thought to have paid $22 million for the freehold going concern, are believed to be veterans Steven and Lauren Raffen. Mid-2025 the couple again bought the Family Hotel Bathurst, which they had owned previously, from Ashton Waugh’s Watering Hole Hotels.
An on-market campaign in Wallacia through HTL Property’s Blake Edwards and Dan Dragicevich drew significant competitive enquiries, with Edwards suggesting they “weren’t at all surprised by the depth of buyer interest in another Sydney freehold hotel”.
Sale of the Wallacia in December capped another bumper year of pub transaction in 2025 and the new year shows signs it will continue, already witnessing major transactions such as AVC buying four Solotel pubs for circa $60 million, and another swathe of Jon Adgemis’ distressed collection selling, mostly to new player Millinium.
“Sydney freehold pub sales have led the asset class nationally in respect of transactional activity, with the Wallacia Hotel sale now registering $750 million this calendar year so far,” added HTL MD Andrew Jolliffe.
