At the Buena Vista Hotel in Mosman, purchased in August for $16 million on behalf of private investors, PHMG will renovate the property and install a restaurant with an upmarket pub-bistro menu. Coffee and breakfast will be served in the morning and the bar will focus on trends such as rose, gin and cocktails.

"It'll be totally different to what Mosman's ever had before," he says.

In recent years, hoteliers have refurbished several old pubs in places such as Surry Hills and Chippendale. But consumer preferences are now encouraging better nightlife options further away from the city. In part, that has been prompted by the 1.30am lockout in the CBD and Kings Cross.

"I think that's a given," says Andrew Jolliffe, director of Ray White Hotels. "That's been a real lever for the decentralisation of those typically food and beverage areas."

Commercial real estate agents had a bumper 2015 in the pub market, with CBRE alone managing 15 hotel transactions across metropolitan Sydney, including Drummoyne, Petersham in Campsie. Nightlife tsar Justin Hemmes purchased the Newport Arms Hotel, which is due to relaunch later this month with Merivale's customary full-service food offering and a games yard.