Union Hotel at Tangambalanga sells to mystery buyer for more than $700,000

Agent Doug May said only a handful of curious onlookers attended the auction on the Victorian election day.

Not a single bid was placed but Mr May did reveal the buyer was a "local family" who wanted to keep their identity secret.

"Less than five minutes after the auction we had an acceptance and the legal work has been completed," Mr May said. "The pub was sold for north of $700,000 and the vendors, who are a local family, are very happy with the result.

"We didn't have any bidders, I passed it in on a vendor's bid of $710,000. At the end of the day, I got a deal with one person - it couldn't get much more local than the person who bought it."

Mr May said the pub was sold by a pair of Albury businessmen and that the property was held in their superannuation.

Publican Anthony Keck said he had heard a local family might have been interested in buying the property and that he and locals were happy that it had not fallen into the hands of a "big corporate from Sydney or Melbourne".

"I'm not in a position to speculate as to who owns the pub, I haven't been told, but there is talk around town that a local family might have been interested in buying it," Mr Keck said."People might be relieved that it was a local who bought it, but it depends in which local it was.

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"No local officially looked at the pub - no one went through and inspected it which surprised me greatly.

"A big corporate from Sydney or Melbourne was not going to buy it because we don't have poker machines thanks to Indigo Shire Council.

"We don't have poker machines in Indigo Shire which is a really good thing."

Mr Keck said he was never nervous about a new owner jacking up the rent.

"The lease we have is until 2036 so we were never worried about rent suddenly going up or being thrown out as a result of the pub being sold," he said.

"If the new owner decided to upgrade the property, with a view to increase the lease, that's something that would be negotiated.

"The only word is that a certain local has been interested in buying it. But locals don't know if that person bought it."

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