The quirks just keep coming.  This week we see animated animals helping to sell apartments and an “affluencer” who has made squillions from the obvious idea of podcasts telling greedy people that it’s okay to be totally selfish.

Jack Henderson does this while wearing MAGA-like “Tax the Poor” caps, denying there’s a housing crisis and whining about the changes to taxation that will make him slightly less obscenely rich.

And his contribution to the Australian economy? Probably less than sweet FA when you consider all the money he’s made from negative gearing.

Meanwhile hundreds and hundreds of Queensland tenants are having problems with mould in their rentals (see previous comments about people getting rich at “the poor’s” expense).  And a tiny house couple who returned from holiday to find their home had been towed away by thieves.

All that and much more in this week’s feed from our friends at Leftfield.

Free Reads

Domain

Paralympic champ Karni Liddell listing her luxe Brisbane apartment
Australian Paralympic champion Karni Liddell is selling her luxury Queensland apartment as she prepares for a move north. The double bronze medallist in swimming has listed her three-bedroom, two-bathroom property at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane.

Meet the ‘shock jock’ of Australian property who says the housing crisis doesn’t exist
As the dust settles on the federal budget, Jack Henderson is still talking about it – and he doesn’t care if his thoughts offend you. “Tax the poor.

Sam Frost and Jordie Hansen sell Noosa home for $1.6 million
Former Home and Away star Sam Frost and her partner, Australian Survivor contestant Jordie Hansen, have made a tidy profit on their Noosa hinterland home.

Australia’s most boring places to live revealed
As house prices continue to skyrocket, Australians are flocking from cities in search of more affordable options. However, according to new research, many are sacrificing something else in the process.

The abandoned Aussie town set for a $10 billion payday
A remote South Australian town, abandoned by residents for years, has received a staggering $10 billion investment. Bundey, about 165 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, has not had a single resident since 2021. It has now been chosen as the site of a massive artificial intelligence data centre.

Commercial Real Estate

Private Queensland island with airstrip, helipad and mainland base for sale
An off-grid private island with its own 900-metre airstrip, helicopter pad and aircraft hangar has hit the market on Queensland’s Fraser Coast, paired with a mainland waterfront base just two minutes away by boat.

ABC Online

Have you found mould in your rental? Here’s what to do next
Mould issues are one of the most common disputes in rental tenancies, according to real estate experts and tenancy advocates. Tenants Queensland receives an average of one complaint a day from tenants reporting mould issues in their homes.

A ‘flamingo revolution’ vs a Trump resort. Inside Albania’s anti-Kushner protests
It started with Ivanka Trump’s private yacht trip. Now the flamingo has risen as an unlikely mascot of intensifying protests across Albania.

Realestate.com.au

AI animal ads double home sales for Melbourne unit developments
Hippos having breakfast in a penthouse, a suited-up fox walking into a bedroom where a capybara in pyjamas reads from a tablet and rhinos drinking coffee in the kitchen.

Millennials warned pension may be gone by retirement as property emerges as Plan B
Millennials are being warned they may need an investment property, not the pension, to fund their retirement as new research shows the eligibility age could rise to 68 in just three years. New research by property investment firm OpenCorp suggests Australians in their 30s and 40s could face a retirement shortfall unless they build wealth outside of superannuation, as the population ages and the ratio of workers to retirees continues to shrink.

The biggest risk with tiny homes exposed
When a couple recently got home from an out-of-state work trip, they found their home was gone — literally. But it wasn’t a tornado or fire that wiped out their house — their tiny home had been stolen from their property by bandits who towed it away hastily in the night.

The Block’s Scott Cam declares Australian dream is ‘dead’ for his own children
He’s built an empire from bricks and mortar but not even The Block host Scott Cam can protect his kids from Australia’s brutal housing market.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s former Newtown home hits the market
A home previously owned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ex-wife Carmel Tebbutt has hit the market in Sydney’s Inner West. Purchasing the property 20 years ago, vendors Narelle Macdonald and Aileen Leddy never expected the previous owner would become the Prime Minister.

Northern Beaches beachfront hits market for first time in 90 years
Nuns and clergy from the Jesuit Fathers used to escape to Newport for seaside retreats between the 1950s and 2000s, staying in a humble weatherboard cottage on Calvert Pde where the waves would roll up to the sand just beyond the back lawn.

Cricket great Brett Lee exits Australia for Dubai with $200m plan
Aussie cricket great Brett Lee and wife Lana, now based in Dubai, have found $7000 a week tenants for their former Sydney base. The couple, who have been married since 2014, spent $8.8m on the luxury Clontarf home six years ago, before extensively renovating.

Sam Armytage sells divorce home for $2.1m
Sam Armytage has secured $2.1m for her Moss Vale renovation project which sold recently after nine days on market through Bradley Cocks of Drew Lindsay Sotheby’s Bowral.

MAFS guru’s quiet $1.6m move
Married At First Sight psychologist John Aiken and interior designer wife Kelly Swanson-Roe have sold their Hunter Valley weekender for about $1.6m.

‘Zombie projects’ – true extent of Sydney’s housing crisis laid bare
Sydney’s housing pipeline has become an optical illusion, with new figures revealing the city is building fewer new homes than reported, influenced by a demolition blitz and “zombie” projects.

Racetrack sells for about $11m, $1m above the price guide
The sold sticker has just gone up on a racing car circuit that hit the market last December. It’s gone for about $11m, $1m above the guide. Owned by entrepreneur Steve Shelley, who co-founded the workforce management software company Deputy, Pheasant Wood Circuit, at 8 Prairie Oak Rd, Marulan near Goulburn, the track was being pitched as “perfect for the active family or group of friends” in the listing.

Olympic legend Cathy Freeman to sell Brighton mansion
Champion Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman and husband James Murch, who are separated, have listed their Brighton mansion with $6m-$6.6m price hopes.

Brighton tennis court hits the market with a $7m price tag
A Brighton back yard tennis court has been served up to the market with a $6.5m-$7m price tag.

Brighton: Mansion with playground and pickleball court seeks $11.5m
A Gothic Victorian-era manse that has been transformed into a spectacular Brighton mansion is ready to score a $10.5m-$11.5m sale. Originally built in the 1880s to serve as clergy accommodation for the John Knox Church next door, the house is part of Bayside Council’s wider North Rd Heritage Precinct.

Landscape designer Edna Walling’s historic ex-studio listed
A quirky Mooroolbark cottage which served as the studio of pioneering landscape designer Edna Walling is for sale with a $900,000-$990,000 price tag.

Kyabram dump undergoes viral TikTok renovation masterpiece
A regional Victorian weatherboard once described by its owner as a poorly maintained “dump” has been transformed into a TikTok sensation with more than 1.2 million likes.

NRL legend Jared Waerea-Hargreaves snaps up prime Gold Coast development site
Sydney Roosters legend Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and his wife Chelsea are taking their property prowess north, securing a prime Gold Coast development site in a popular beachside pocket.

Real Commercial

Barbeques Galore axed, hundreds lose jobs
Australia’s largest barbeque and outdoor furniture retailer, Barbeques Galore, is set to cease trading this month, resulting in hundreds of job losses and the closure of dozens of stores nationwide.

An eye for the unusual: Why an ice rink is the perfect project for this Tassie developer
Tasmanian property development and construction team The Young Group is proudly going where few Aussies have gone before – the end-to-end project of providing a full-sized ice rink.

Adrian Portelli teases Adelaide petrol station expansion after court fine
Billionaire Adrian Portelli has launched a swipe at a South Australian politician while teasing expansion of his cut-price petrol empire. The Block buyer offered politician Andrea Michaels a job to cover her legal costs, just months after his company was fined $40,000 over unlawful lotteries in the state.

Michelle Payne reveals $3m horse training farm as she plots sale
Champion jockey Michelle Payne is preparing to sell the Ballarat horse training farm she was establishing as she became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Supercars team boss to sell $11.5m beachfront pad
Megan Foster, chief executive of one of Australia’s oldest motor sports teams, and her partner Stephen Gough have put their beachfront home in Melbourne’s south-east on the market with $11.5 million price hopes, in the same suburb where former Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley is also selling.

‘IKEA flat pack of housing’: Couple save $250k with shed-house build
Victorian grandparents Mandy and Trevor Allan are living in a shed with their grandson. While it may sound like a miserable retirement, the opposite is true for the Allans, whose stylish and functional home has become the envy of locals in their town.

‘Someone is stealing my signs’: Brisbane estate agent claims foul play
Brisbane’s hot real estate market is in uproar with a realtor accusing a rival agency of taking her advertising signs after she used location trackers to trace the missing signage to a rubbish bin outside her competitors’ office.

The Australian

Investors in luxury Lombok retirement villa sold ‘pictures and promises’
Australian investors who poured millions of dollars into a proposed retirement villa development in Lombok were sold “pictures and promises”, a former project director has alleged, as former business partners Jamie McIntyre and Adrian Campbell trade accusations over the collapse of the Marina Bay City project.

The Sydney Morning Herald

I’ve come up with a solution for our parking woes. Not everyone will like it
It may seem as if it’s impossible to find a car park on the street. But as a recent Grattan Institute report makes clear, Australia has an oversupply of parking, both on streets and in parking lots.

Why even takeaway coffee cups will be used to rebuild this Sydney home
Architect Alexander Symes’ renovation of his family’s 120-year-old terrace in Sydney’s Camperdown has one rule: “Nothing leaves the site.“ To eliminate all waste, everything will be repurposed, from construction materials such as lime mortar, timber, glass, tiles, clay pipes and bricks, to even the takeaway coffee cups brought on-site, in what will be a warm and healthy home.

Former Home and Away star sells $15 million Bronte home
A stunning Hamptons-style beach house in Bronte sold for $15 million last week, as a former child star sold to a wealthy benefactor. Vendors Ryan Clark, a former Home and Away and Bondi Rescue star, and his wife, Gina, sold the home to philanthropist Kim Medich, local sources have exclusively revealed to this masthead.

Billionaire’s granddaughter, 34, takes out mortgage on $20m Vaucluse home
She’s the granddaughter of Australia’s richest man, Harry Triguboff, who has an estimated wealth of $32.28 billion, but Miki Hendler is paying off her own home with a mortgage.

Sydney’s best homes on the market for wine collectors
Whether it’s champagne, pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon, storing wine can be an art form, just like wine itself. With variables ranging from temperature and humidity to light and insulation, there’s much to consider.

The Age

A dirty job: How a father and son built one of state’s worst illegal dump sites in their own backyard
On an undulating road, where suburban houses give way to bush blocks on Melbourne’s edge, an eccentric shed-cum-house with cowboy energy is on the market.

Melbourne’s best homes for sale for wine collectors
Whether it’s champagne, pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon, storing wine can be an art form, just like wine itself. With variables ranging from temperature and humidity to light and insulation, there’s much to consider.

Brisbane Times

How a few lines of paint could ease pressure on train station parking
A few lines of paint on concrete to create dedicated e-scooter parking bays could push more people to use public transport in Brisbane and slash congestion, according to a new study.

WA Today

Bureaucratic parking battle pushes Perth café to brink of closure
A bureaucratic battle over parking has put the future of a popular café up in the air and led to thousands of dollars’ worth of tickets being issued to coffee aficionados in Perth’s south.

The Daily Telegraph

‘Slime bikes’: Safety advocate demands huge fines for dumped e-bikes in Sydney
Australia’s most prominent road safety voice is calling for Sydney councils to impose heavy fines on share-hire e-bike operators, saying abandoned bikes are endangering vision-impaired pedestrians daily.

Bonnyrigg House falls into disrepair as trees cleared from property
The state government has been accused of wanting to flog off a heritage-listed 200-year-old homestead and treating western Sydney’s history as ‘second class’.

‘Pure greed’: Native tree in $11m eastern suburbs home allegedly poisoned
A native tree standing in the way of a multimillion dollar home’s view of Sydney Harbour has allegedly been poisoned, with a neighbour finding herbicide and a drill hole at its base.

The Herald Sun

Union secures incredible conditions for $125bn Suburban Rail Loop project
Tunnel workers on Melbourne’s $125bn Suburban Rail Loop have secured entry-level pay of $175,000, plus added perks like divorce leave, wellness rooms and hot weather shutdowns.

The Courier Mail

Massive retirement village featuring pools and bowls green gets go-ahead for Mackay
Swimming pools, a cinema, bowling green, pickleball courts and a sprawling clubhouse precinct are among the features planned for the five-stage community.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Ambitious plans unveiled for wellness towers on Gold Coast’s notorious cow paddock
The Gold Coast’s most famous cow paddock – so flood-prone previous approvals mandated lifeboats – has been earmarked for Australia’s first “advanced wellness living community”.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Alleged dodgy SA tradies named and shamed in landmark Consumer Business Services ‘rogue trader’ crackdown
SA’s consumer watchdog has gone from “toothless tiger” to issuing $200,000 in fines as eight alleged “rogue” tradies are publicly named for the first time. See the list.