Real estate magnate Sam Arnaout has bought Sydney’s Cabramatta Hotel and the El Cortez Hotel in a deal worth more than $180 million, making them the most expensive pubs to change hands this year.

Adding cheer to an already buoyant sector, the transaction brings the tally of Sydney metro pub sales to about $1 billion this year, matching the previous record set in 2022, when deal making surged after the worst of the pandemic passed.