Another inner-city pub for sale

A popular inner-city Melbourne pub, the East Brunswick Hotel, has hit the market.

The Lygon Street watering hole is set be auctioned with vacant possession and is expected to fetch more than $3.5 million.

The freehold of the hotel will be sold without a functioning business as the venue was shut about two months ago, sale agents CBRE said.

The pub, on the corner of Lygon and Albert streets, lies in the middle of an apartment construction zone, with multiple residential buildings replacing former commercial sites along the popular street.

The three-storey hotel has had a full renovation and features ground floor drinking and dining areas, a basement and upstairs function room and 12 accommodation rooms fitted with ensuites.

CBRE's Scott Callow said it was unlikely the hotel would succumb to the fate of many other Melbourne pubs where developers have snapped up historic sites intent on razing them and replacing them with apartments.

Few working pubs have hit the market lately, Callow said.

"In most cases owners are saying they don't want to sell. They'd rather hold. It's caused a fair bit of pent-up demand in the market with very little supply."

Earlier this year, prominent hotel owner Sand Hill Road purchased the leasehold for St Kilda's famed The Esplanade Hotel, promising to give it a major facelift after it was closed two years ago.

The story Another inner-city pub for sale first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.