Savills Australia is delighted to announce the expansion of its national hotels team with the appointment of a new Pubs division in its Brisbane office. Savills has appointed seven agents and two support staff, led by Tony Bargwanna as Director.

Mr Bargwanna is joined by Sean Dollar and a team of experienced operators with an exceptional track record in the Australian market.

According to Michael Simpson, Managing Director, Hotels, Savills Australia and New Zealand, “It has been a key element of our strategy to grow the Savills team to acquire a pub hotels division to complement the success that we have had in accommodation hotels.

“The market has a small number of players who have strong track records as well as the right relationships. Tony Bargwanna was responsible for establishing the JLL pubs division over 17 years ago and we have worked together in many different capacities over that time. He is the undisputed market leader in pub transactions in Queensland”.

Mr Simpson went on to say that in the past few years, the pub transaction market has been strong in Sydney and Melbourne, with relatively fewer transactions in Brisbane.

“Now that many of the pubs have traded in the southern markets, the focus of both domestic and international capital is shifting to the Queensland market where pubs are showing robust returns with further growth forecast. The timing of this team acquisition means Savills is poised to capitalise on this next wave of growth and transactions” he said.

Paul Craig, CEO of Savills Australia & New Zealand said given Savills growing market share and success across the Australian hotels and lodging business, both in Australia and globally, we see this as another important step in our aggressive growth strategy to further diversify our service offering into a wider asset class as more capital continues to seek a home in property.

“The recent success of our hotels platform and newly formed student accommodation business lines are great examples of this, and retirement living and aged care will also be targeted growth areas for the group”.

The new team will be based in the Savills Brisbane office at Central Plaza 2, 66 Eagle St, Brisbane City.