Regional pubs are proving as lucrative as their city cousins, the popular Port Macquarie Hotel setting a record sale price of $57 million for the Mid North Coast of NSW, while a site in Tamworth went for $18 million.

The large Port Macquarie pub has been a focal point for the community for 80 years and was sold by the Taphouse Group, which paid $15.8 million for the venue in December 2010 from the then-listed Redcape Hotel group.

Taphouse is run by the co-founders and families of the formerly listed direct marketing and communications company Salmat, Peter Mattick and his late business partner Phil Salter.

The sale was handled by HTL Property agents who were only authorised to say a private NSW hotelier bought the Port Macquarie Hotel. Taphouse is also selling the Tacking Point Tavern near Lighthouse Beach, also through HTL Property.

The imposing two-storey art deco pub sits on 2878 square metres across multiple street fronts and generates about $25 million in annual revenue from a bar, restaurant, pokies and hotel-style accommodation.

“Interest in our public expressions of interest process last month drew activity from a national investor landscape, and highlighted the magnetism of multi-revenue faceted hotels in key geographical centres along Australia’s east coast,” HTL Property director Sam Handy said.

In the past year, sales of regional pubs and hotels have boomed as tree-changers and city-based hotel operators opt to move further away from capital cities.

Veteran pub operators and investors Arthur Laundy and John Singleton have earmarked the Mid-North Coast as a growth area, with both buying large-scale properties in an around the district.

Further inland a private hotel fund paid $18 million for the Best Western Sanctuary Inn, Tamworth. HTL Property directors Nic Simarro and Andrew Jackson managed the off-market sale.