Known as the "most famous watering hole in the Shire", the pub is valued at about $30 million and returns about $12 million in yearly revenue.

Investors and owner/occupiers are locked in battle for the assets, but are cognisant of not repeating the past mistakes or over-paying, over-capitalising and over-borrowing.

Nowadays, the buyers know the market and also install, where necessary, a competent manager.

Ray White's Asia Pacific hotel director Andrew Jolliffe, who sold the Tea Gardens Hotel in Sydney's Bondi for $36 million, is selling the the Cronulla's beachfront hotel icon.

"Opportunities to manage the sale of hotel assets with the heritage and cash flow quality of The North Cronulla Hotel are as rare as the assets themselves," Mr Jolliffe said.

Northies is owned by the Fernwood Group, which also owns The Greengate at Killara, The Exchange Hotel in Balmain and the Mona Vale Hotel, which Ray White are selling in conjunction with Mike Wheatley of Knight Frank.

"The hotel industry is in a very good place currently. Three to five year money is compelling priced by the major lenders, revenue centres are well represented across multiple hotel business facets, and legislative headwinds are comparatively benign," Mr Jolliffe said.

Daniel Dragicevich, the director of CBRE Hotels, who recently sold the Rose and Crown at Parramatta, said the NSW Hotel market, while still segmented across location and asset type, is generally very buoyant.

"Demand outstrips supply for many asset types as favourable lending conditions continue to prevail, on-premise trade is strong and the legislative environment remains relatively clear. This is underlined by the abundance of new entrants to sector as well as continual re-investment by the traditional Hotel families," Mr Dragicevich said.

CBRE have sold over $55 million worth of Hotels in Sydney in the last month alone with further quality opportunities to be announced over the next couple of weeks.

Other icon pubs on the market include the Hotel Bondi, through John Musca, JLL national director, who also recently sold the Vegas Hotel at Seven Hill.

"That the four unconditional bids received in our $25 million-plus transaction of the Vegas Hotel, Seven Hills last week, was evidence that the market is back to basics seeking clean licences, freehold properties, strong contributions from on-premise and gaming and inimitable catchment attributes," Mr Musca said.

"We are excited to shortly bring further quality opportunities to market that are expected to attract additional private equity to the asset class."

Investors in the sector added that the Hotel Bondi was asset attracting widespread interest with international boutique hotel groups Virgin Hotels and US-based Commune Hotels & Resorts mooted to be running the ruler over the asset.

There is also the Woolworths-owned $500 million pub portfolio on the market, as well as the mooted float of the John Singleton and Mark Carnegie-backed Australian pub fund.