It is anticipated to attract intense interest from investors, land bankers, developers, high net worth individuals, family offices, REIT’s and indeed hoteliers alike.
HTL Property’s Sam Handy and Blake Edwards have been exclusively appointed to sell the Freehold Interest of the hotel, on behalf of a private consortium who have owned the hotel for the last 20 years.
The popular hotel is situated within the Gold Creek Tourist precinct, within the suburb of Nicholls. Nicholls is located some 12km* from the Canberra CBD, and is strategically positioned within the town centres of Belconnen and Gunghalin; representing the two growth engines for Canberra's North-West Growth Corridor, and characterised by numerous large scale master planned residential communities either recently completed, under construction and/or in the planning pipeline (STCA).
The precinct is home to national fast food operators (McDonald’s & KFC), service stations operators (BP & Ampol) - and also some of the city's most popular tourist attractions including: the National Dinosaur Museum, Cockington Green Gardens, Australian Reptile Centre, Gold Creek Tourist Resort & Federation Square Retail Precinct.
The George Harcourt Inn lease currently generates a stable and secure passive income of $367,744 + GST per annum, with fixed annual increases of 3 per cent ensuring long-term income growth and steady capital appreciation.
The lease runs until October 2033, with no further options at which time an investor can either restaple the business and the land (which would be considered to be a significantly value accretive initiative); or alternatively renegotiate the lease and/or potentially benefit from payment of a lucrative lease premium from a new tenant. The current lease structure is very attractive, with the tenant responsible for all outgoings and utilities including land tax and all insurances.
"The George Harcourt Inn presents an investor with a compelling combination of stable and secure income, via an attractive lease structure and generated by a high calibre and experienced tenant," said HTL Property Director, Sam Handy.
"The sheer size of the landholding, coupled with the medium term left on the lease, will be extremely attractive to both hoteliers and developers who may seek to optimise the site in the future," Handy added.
The hotel occupies a large 7,048 sqm* landholding, is prominently positioned at the gateway to the Gold Creek tourist precinct and overlooks the Barton Highway, which itself sees traffic volume of 20,000* vehicles every day. Over and above the existing business, this site features a strong underlying building value, low land utilisation, flexible zoning and obvious future mixed-use redevelopment to vacant portions of the site (STCA).
It is widely considered that the site's frontage to the Barton Highway could be potentially redeveloped into a PAD site, and therefore leased to a fast food, convenience and/or fuel operator (STCA).
Further underwriting both the rarity and value of this offering, is the fact that there are very few large format pubs within the City of Canberra and wider ACT region.
"Investors should be wholly comfortable that the George Harcourt Inn business is a very profitable business, and that the current (and projected) rental is both sustainable and secure," suggested HTL Property Director Blake Edwards.
"Furthermore, limited competition, legislative restraints and elevated construction costs ensure there are high barriers to entry for any new greenfield pub premises within the region; further protecting the investment," Edwards added.
The Freehold Interest in the George Harcourt Inn is being sold via a national Expression of Interest sale program, concluding at 5:00pm on Thursday 4 June 2026.
