Welcome, it’s Adrian Bo and this week, I’m on the the corner of Perouse Road and Cuthill Street in the magnificent Randwick to talk about another local institution that was conceived when Randwick had less than 1,000 residents. It’s difficult to imagine the days when Randwick was a sleepy village, but when the Royal Hotel here behind me in Randwick was built in 1887, the local population was only just starting to grow. Royal Randwick Racecourse had been in use for 50 years already, bringing visitors to the area. Thomas Browne was one of those visitors. He owned a horse called The Barber, that won the Hawkesbury Handicap, and other Sydney races during the 1870s. He also owned Centaur, Lord Roberts and Friction, which performed admirably over the same period. After many successful raids to Royal Randwick, Browne decided to invest in a drinking hole for Randwick racing people and its locals, hence after plans had been drawn up with architect, John Kirkpatrick, in 1887, then the Royal Hotel was born. The licence was issued on the 21st of July, 1887. and Browne maintained ownership right up until his death in 1904 when the business was passed on to his family, which eventually sold at auction in 1947 for $100,000.

In 1950, local brewery company, Tooth & Co, bought the hotel and then in 1976, Margaret Maloney, the current owner, bought it from them. The Royal Hotel is a classic example of a hospitality business that has weathered plenty of storms, from the mass increase in hotels in New South Wales during the 1890s, when 3,991 licences were operating in New South Wales. To the minimum drinking age of 18 being introduced in 1906, then the Temperance movement closing down 339 licences in Sydney in 1907. To a 6 p.m. early closing of pubs from 1916 to beer rationing in 1941, causing many pubs to also close. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the good news for the pub industry started to flow. And closing hours were extended to 10 p.m. in 1954. Drive in bottle shops began in 1955, pokie machines were legalised in 1956, and the Sunday trading ban was lifted, thank goodness, in 1971. The Royal Hotel, as you can see behind me, has withstood the ebbs and flows, including the decimation that COVID has brought, and it is heritage listed also by the National Trust of Australia.

Now, the real estate market in Randwick has had a terrific run all the way through the whole of 2021, with the median house price for two bedrooms being up 13.8% this year to $2,043,000. Three-bedroom houses in Randwick are up 10.6% this year to $2,550,000. Four-bedroom houses are up by 13.6% to $3,168,000. And five-bedroom houses are up a massive 23.3% after a 24.6% increase in 2020, with the median price now for five-bedroom houses being a huge $4.3 million. Units have also had a strong growth period, but a more modest run during that 2021 period. Now, after selling real estate for 32 years in Randwick, Coogee, Clovely and Maroubra, I feel we need to keep the stories alive of how the wonderful eastern suburbs of Sydney has evolved. Having recently joined the Ray White family here in Randwick, my new office is at 126 Avoca Street, on the corner of Alison Road, if you’d like to drop in and discuss your property needs. My first auction sale for Ray White was a great success on Saturday, selling a stunning house bordering Randwick, being at 313 Botany Street in Kingsford, which achieved an incredible price of $4,550,000, being a whopping $1.2 million over the reserve price. Please enjoy the late spring and always remember, your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.