With a garage on sale for half a million and a skinny house with its bath in the backyard selling for more than double that, the price of property is still crazy.

Meanwhile, on the rental side, one landlord has warned his tenant not to smoke in the home, another owner has moved into his shared-house tenancy and first-home buyers gaming the system have been forced to pay back $48m in dodgy claims.

That’s all in your curated cornucopia of quirk from Leftfield Communications.

Free Reads

Domain

Man splashes out $34k for security to protect tiny wall from being bulldozed
Roger White has spent nearly $34,000 on round-the-clock security guards to protect a small brick wall from being demolished by developers.

This Sydney car spot costs more than some homes
A double lock-up garage in Potts Point has hit the market with a $500,000 price guide, the kind of result that illustrates Sydney’s land scarcity more vividly than any data set. Half a million dollars buys a house in many parts of regional Australia but in this inner-city postcode it barely secures a couple of places to park.

The Block contestants won’t make a cent after unsold Daylesford homes cop $300,000 price cuts
Two properties from the most recent series of The Block have had their asking prices reduced by more than $300,000 to $2.6 million each, close to eight months after they failed to sell on the show. Neither contestant stands to make a profit from the experience at the revised price points.

Young Sydney couple secretly snap up massive $30 million compound
Portfolio manager Jessica Farr-Jones and her husband Boris Dangubic have purchased two neighbouring Vaucluse properties for around $30 million in an off-market deal, with plans to combine them into a single compound. Farr-Jones is a daughter of Wallabies legend Nick Farr-Jones and a portfolio manager at Regal Funds Management.

‘Ask your lawyer’: Landlord’s brazen act sparks backlash
A tenant has gone public after their landlord moved into a shared property unannounced and began scrutinising their daily movements, with the situation deteriorating to the point where legal action is now being considered. The story has drawn widespread reader response highlighting the vulnerability of tenants in arrangements where landlords retain access to the property.

‘Evil’: Locals slam woman after she blocked them from her own backyard
A Colorado homeowner who purchased a five-bedroom property with a creek running through the backyard has faced community anger after blocking locals from accessing her land, a right they had apparently exercised informally for years. The dispute quickly escalated on social media, with neighbours describing the owner’s actions in stark terms.

The AFL sharehouse behind six sporting stars
A Broadbeach Waters waterfront property that served as the early-career share house for six Gold Coast Suns players, including star midfielder Mac Andrew, has been listed for $4.65 million. The home has been marketed on the back of its story as a launching pad for a generation of Gold Coast footballers.

Sole survivor of a demolished village hits the market
The last remaining home in the former Welsh mining village of Troedrhiwfuwch has been listed for £35,000, making it one of the most unusual property listings in Britain. It sits alone on empty streets after the rest of the village was cleared decades ago.

Sydney ‘skinny house’ with a bath in the backyard sells for nearly $1.3 million
A one-bedroom Erskineville terrace just 3.4 metres wide and too narrow for an indoor bath has sold for close to $1.3 million, underlining the continued appeal of well-located inner-west properties even in unusual configurations. The outdoor bathtub became the home’s most talked-about feature during the sales campaign.

ABC Online

Melville tree protection plans in doubt as council meeting weighs options
Melville councillors are debating whether to introduce a policy protecting significant trees on private land or exempt tree removals from planning controls altogether.

The federal government says it fixed Australia’s ‘broken’ environmental laws. Koala advocates disagree
Brisbane bayside residents say continued koala habitat clearing shows sweeping changes to national environment laws have not closed the loopholes that matter most.

Proposal to rename Homebush dumped after councillor’s conflict of interest snag
Strathfield Council has voted against a proposal to rename most of Homebush and Homebush West to Strathfield, after the councillor who championed the plan declared a conflict of interest related to a relative’s property in the affected area. The declaration came after the councillor had already publicly promoted the renaming on radio.

Tasmanian Aboriginal community calls for change after damage to heritage site at Trevallyn Reserve
More than 100 Aboriginal tools have been covered over during upgrade works to a walking and cycling path at Trevallyn Reserve in Launceston, after Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania advised the Parks and Wildlife Service it did not require a permit for the works. Aboriginal community leaders are calling for systemic changes to how heritage site assessments are conducted before infrastructure work begins.

Realestate.com.au

Landlord warns renter about smoking in home
A tenant has shared heated text exchanges after their landlord-colleague threatened eviction over unproven smoking accusations.

Mark Latham’s $2.5m Sydney home for sale
NSW upper house member Mark Latham has listed his Camden acreage with a $2.4m to $2.6m guide through Inglis Property.

Olympian’s parents sell spectacular Paddington home to run remote New Zealand lodge
The parents of a Paris Olympics silver medallist have sold their Brisbane resort-style Paddington home to run a remote New Zealand island lodge.

Goat with ‘attitude problem’ sacked for being a ‘tiny horned dictator’
Ben the landscaping goat has been let go from his grounds management role for displaying an attitude problem unbecoming of a professional.

Payout delays spark sudden home debt panic
Grieving families are being pushed toward requesting mortgage repayment pauses from banks after superannuation funds have taken more than six months in some cases to release death benefit payouts. An ASIC review has exposed slow progress across the super industry and prompted calls for mandatory customer service standards.

Family quit Australia to buy home for cash in Italy
A Sydney couple have settled in central Italy after purchasing a four-bedroom villa near the Tuscany border for €200,000, or around $328,600 Australian, saying the decision to leave was driven by the unaffordability of property and groceries in Australia. Amanda and Paul Nedza, both 38, describe it as the best decision they ever made.

Bachelor’s Matty J and Laura Byrne forced to rent out dream home amid ‘mountain of debt’
Bachelor couple Matty J Johnson and Laura Byrne have revealed their renovated South Coast holiday property became financially unviable, forcing them to list it on Airbnb just to meet mortgage repayments on what they describe as a mountain of debt. The property near Ulladulla was intended as a coastal escape but has instead become a cautionary tale about the gap between renovation aspiration and financial reality.

Victorian first-home buyers forced to repay millions in grants and tax
More than 5,200 Victorian first home buyers have been caught claiming duty reductions illegally over the past decade, with the state government recovering $48.6 million in tax, fines and interest. The figures are a reminder that the conditions attached to first home buyer programs are actively monitored and enforced.

Brisbane’s disappearing land supply sees tiny inner-city driveway hit the market
A former driveway in inner Brisbane has been listed for sale as vacant land in what may be the smallest such listing in the city’s history, a quirky but pointed illustration of how far land scarcity has stretched in a market where supply is consistently falling short of demand.

Cruel savings account warning stuns everyday Australian savers
Australians holding cash while waiting to buy property are being warned their savings are effectively going backwards, with average term deposit rates stuck at 3.55 per cent against an inflation rate of 4.2 per cent. The real return on cash savings is negative for the first time in several years.

Andrew Demetriou sells Toorak pad millions below original range
Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and his wife Symone Richards have sold their Toorak home for around $12 million, more than $3 million below the original asking range of $15 to $16.5 million after more than a year on the market with multiple price reductions. The sale reflects broader softness at the top end of Melbourne’s prestige market.

Real Commercial

$3.9m Victorian farm hides lucrative ‘black gold’ truffle treasure
A 30-hectare Trentham farm listed at $3.6m to $3.9m includes a 387-oak truffière that produced around 160kg of truffles in its 2025 harvest.

Australia’s first ever Bubba Gump Shrimp Co to open
The first Australian outlet of the Forrest Gump-themed Bubba Gump Shrimp Co is preparing to open, with up to 50 positions being recruited including head chef and venue manager for the fully immersive dining experience. The opening adds to growing international food and beverage brand activity in the Australian hospitality market.

Mining billionaire’s firm pleads guilty over takeover breach
Palmer Leisure Coolum has pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates’ Court to breaching takeover laws more than 14 years after announcing it would buy out all shareholders and villa holders in The President’s Club timeshare operation at what is now Palmer Coolum Resort, but never following through with the required offers.

Proposed giveaway laws strike Portelli’s cheap supermarket and petrol rollout
LMCT+ founder Adrian Portelli has warned that proposed federal laws targeting paid giveaway clubs could derail his plan to roll out a national network of discounted petrol stations and supermarkets designed to compete directly with Australia’s major grocery and fuel retailers. Portelli says the rewards model underpinning the expansion could be effectively stamped out by the legislation.

Pay-walled

The Sydney Morning Herald

The type of home that is getting ‘hit harder’ as house values fall
Top-end properties in Sydney and Melbourne are recording the steepest value falls as rate hikes, Middle East uncertainty and the budget’s tax changes make buyers increasingly cautious.

Catalano wins fight to build $29m Byron mansion — but there’s a catch
Disgraced media entrepreneur Antony Catalano has received conditional approval on appeal to proceed with a $28.7 million two-home rainforest compound at Wategos Beach in Byron Bay, after Byron Shire Council initially rejected the application in late 2024. The approval comes with conditions attached and follows a development campaign that has been anything but straightforward for Catalano in one of Australia’s most tightly watched coastal enclaves.

Revealed: The Sydney suburbs quickly becoming sporting deserts
A western Sydney community leader is calling for school and university grounds to be unlocked for weekend use to address a severe shortage of sports facilities in suburbs where population growth has dramatically outpaced infrastructure delivery. The issue is described as particularly acute in the west, where fast-expanding communities have the least access to organised sport.

‘I don’t earn enough to rent anything’: How Sydney’s grand housing vision was whittled away
An examination of how the NSW government’s ambitious density and affordable housing agenda, launched by Chris Minns in late 2023, has been progressively diluted by political compromise, community opposition and planning system constraints. The result is a growing gap between what was promised and what is actually being delivered for the workers and renters the policy was designed to help.

Lleyton and Bec Hewitt list grand slam Sydney home for $14 million
Lleyton and Bec Hewitt have listed their six-bedroom Glenhaven estate in Sydney’s Hills District at $14 million, with the couple citing constant international travel as the reason for the move. The property includes a championship-sized tennis court.

The Age

‘Could have been catastrophic’: Children at risk of 12-storey plunge from high-rise childcare centre
A St Kilda Road childcare centre has been issued an emergency closure notice after inspectors found children could access the unprotected edge of a 12th-floor outdoor play space.

The single Cypress tree that pub owner claims has halted multimillion-dollar renovations
Windsor Castle Hotel publican Liam Ganley holds a planning permit to overhaul the historic Chapel Street venue but says a dispute over a single Cypress tree is blocking all construction work from starting. Ganley needs to build a brick wall to contain noise from the pub before work can begin, but the tree sits in the way of that plan and the impasse shows no sign of resolving quickly.

Brisbane Times

Plans for new inner-city cycleway and footpath revealed, construction to start next year
A 1.2-kilometre two-way bikeway and separate footpath will be built along Shafston Avenue between Kangaroo Point and East Brisbane, linking existing paths at Deakin Street and Mowbray Park to create a direct cycling route into the city. The corridor has long been identified as dangerous and difficult to navigate for cyclists and construction is scheduled to begin next year.

No to housing but yes to industry on chicken farm site, councillor argues
Redlands councillor Rowanne McKenzie is urging her council colleagues to reject a housing development proposal on a Bayside chicken farm site east of Brisbane, and instead advocate for tourism, sport and recreation uses on the land. A notice of motion has been filed asking the council to write to the deputy premier supporting an investigation into adding the Mount Cotton site to the state’s urban footprint.

The Daily Telegraph

Kings Green: Justin Hemmes pays $6m for last office needed for ambitious city project
Justin Hemmes has paid $6 million to acquire the final property needed for Kings Green, completing a thirty-year site assembly for a 16,300 square metre CBD precinct of restaurants, bars and hotel accommodation designed to rival the nearby Ivy complex. The project represents one of the most patient and ambitious property plays in Sydney’s hospitality history.

The Courier Mail

Brisbane City Council 2026 budget: $110m ‘operation smooth’ to resurface some of city’s busiest roads
Brisbane’s $110 million Operation Smooth program will resurface the city’s busiest roads as part of a $1.9 billion transport and infrastructure budget.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

‘Death trap’ shipping container home advertised for $420-a-week on the Gold Coast
A $420-a-week shipping container rental on the Gold Coast has drawn sharp criticism from industry figures, with one senior voice warning conditions in the rental market will deteriorate further within the next twelve months. The listing has been cited as evidence of how severely rental supply constraints are affecting housing options for lower-income residents.

The West Australian

Registered builders no longer required for sheds, garages and car ports under $50,000
From July, sheds, garages and carports costing less than $50,000 will no longer require a registered builder in Western Australia, with the state government lifting the threshold from $20,000 in a move designed to cut red tape and free up licensed builders for higher-value construction work. The change applies to Class 10a buildings including private garages and carports.

The Illawarra Mercury

Revealed: how much Samantha Armytage pocketed on her Highlands cottage that sold in just 10 days
Cotality records show Samantha Armytage sold her Moss Vale renovation project in April for $2.1 million, pocketing around $800,000 on the deal.