Fancy yourself as a property developer? There’s an almost vacant lot in one of Sydney’s seaside suburbs. Right now it’s just a garage and a well-maintained lawn but it’s just crying out for a nice three-storey apartment block. That might explain why it’s on sale for about $2 million.

Meanwhile, if the government planned to take the heat out of the property market, it has certainly worked with reports of much lower attendances at auctions – including one where even the vendor didn’t turn up.

And if you’re looking to sell, think about stressing how pet-friendly your block is.  Apparently that’s the critical factor in many homebuyers’ decisions.

All this and more in the weekly quantum of quirk from Leftfield Communications

Free Reads

Domain

Catering queen faces $2 million hit on luxury Sydney apartment
Simmone Logue and her husband Ray Sproats are facing a $2 million loss on their Elizabeth Bay Del Rio apartment, listed at $9 million to $9.5 million against the $11 million they paid.

From 2003 to 2026: A round-up of The Block’s locations
A look back at every Block filming location from Bondi in 2003 to this year’s Mount Eliza season, a useful reference for understanding how each suburb performed before, during and after the show.

‘No insulation’: Renter exposes shock truth behind her ‘dream’ penthouse unit
A Julliard graduate musician’s account of discovering severe mould and no insulation in a New York City penthouse she had rented as her dream apartment has resonated widely.

The $2m Sydney property that’s mostly just a lawn and a garage
A Balgowlah property consisting almost entirely of a manicured lawn and a four-car garage is listed at $2 million, with development potential doing the heavy lifting on a price that bears no relationship to the existing improvements.

‘Not even the vendor showed up’: Eerie scenes at auctions as housing market cools
The national preliminary clearance rate came in at 53.4 per cent across 1,421 scheduled auctions, with agents describing scenes at some Saturday auctions where neither qualified buyers nor vendors appeared.

Diane Keaton’s ‘dream home’ finds a buyer months after her death
Diane Keaton’s Los Angeles home, first listed in March 2025 and held through the late actress’s death, has finally found a buyer after more than a year on the market

AFL star Marcus Bontempelli scores multimillion-dollar sale
&Marcus Bontempelli has sold the Kew Californian Bungalow he purchased in 2017 for $2.265 million, with the result reflecting close to a decade of Melbourne price growth in an established inner suburb.

Commercial Real Estate

Sydney and Melbourne’s data centre domination under threat from new laws
Federal government plans requiring large-scale data centres to generate their own renewable power could force the sector away from Sydney and Melbourne, where grid constraints are most acute, toward regional locations with greater renewable energy capacity.

ABC Online

Bulli couple told two modular homes on one block makes it an ‘estate’
An Illawarra couple have had their application to build a second modular home on a subdivided block rejected twice by Wollongong Council, which classifies two modular dwellings on one property as a manufactured housing estate requiring different approvals.

Guerilla garden removed from inner west Sydney intersection over road safety concerns
A community-created pop-up garden installed at a Newtown intersection to test the beautification potential of unused urban space was dismantled by transport authorities after two weeks over safety concerns.

Realestate.com.au

Pets the main consideration for home buyers
Research shows 52 per cent of new home buyers factor their pet into their property decision, with yard size, pet-friendly building rules and proximity to parks among the primary drivers

Former Olympian reveals how he built a $10m nine-property portfolio
Former Taekwondo Olympian HayderShkara built a nine-property portfolio valued at $10 million by cashing out a modest share portfolio to fund his first purchase in Berkeley on NSW’s South Coast at age 30.

Wesfarmers Boss in $9million downsizing
Former Wesfarmers chairman Bob Every sold his Elizabeth Bay waterfront apartment for $22 million and bought a Potts Point penthouse for $13 million within a week, both negotiated by the same agents.

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes lowers guide on Southern Highlands retreat
Miriam Margolyes has reduced the guide on her 62-hectare Robertson property from $3.95 million to $4.2 million down to $3.65 million to $4 million after the listing failed to find a buyer since December.

Bentleigh East owner turns $20k into $122,500 auction profit
A Bentleigh East vendor who spent $20,000 on fresh paint and repolished floors saw the investment return roughly five times its cost when the property sold $122,500 above reserve.

Dustin Martin sells Port Melbourne apartment after 170-day campaign
AFL great Dustin Martin has sold his Port Melbourne apartment for $1.6 million, tens of thousands below his original asking price, after more than 170 days across two separate campaigns.

Damaged Banksia Park home with TikTok following sells for $730,000
A long-vacant, visibly deteriorated Banksia Park home that had accumulated a social media following sold at auction for $730,000 after five years empty.

Celebrity migration: The global stars that have made Australia home
A roundup of international celebrities who have made Australia their permanent home, from actors to musicians to former world leaders.

Why Grey’s Anatomy star Kate Walsh moved to Australia
Grey’s Anatomy star Kate Walsh, who built a $30 million fortune at up to $262,000 per episode, moved to Perth after being stranded by Covid-19 travel restrictions in 2020 and falling for an Australian farmer.

Inside Jimmy Barnes’ multimillion-dollar real estate moves
Jimmy Barnes has built a $20 million NSW property portfolio across decades of rock stardom. A celebrity portfolio story with a distinctly Australian character.

$10m Sydney home sale not enough for creditors
Creditors of fraudster Melissa Caddick will receive just 40 cents in the dollar from her estate, including proceeds from the sale of her luxury Sydney home, despite its $10 million price.

‘God help us’: auctioneer reports ‘worst’ day of his 30-year career
Sydney’s clearance rate fell to 40.5 per cent last Saturday as veteran auctioneer Tom Panos described the day as the worst of his 30-year career, with properties continuing to be withdrawn before reaching the hammer.

Aus council’s plan to sell $750k of land for $1
Bellingen Shire Council is proposing to sell a $750,000 block of land for one dollar to a non-profit housing organisation to enable affordable housing delivery, drawing community criticism from ratepayers who have recently faced significant fee increases.

Tax-dodging investors slugged with millions in fines for empty homes
Victoria’s vacant residential land tax investigations have nearly doubled, with enforcement data showing 17 non-compliant owners for every 100 paying the tax, resulting in millions in fines as the government tightens collection.

Melbourne property manager reveals double life as pro wrestler
A 27-year-old Melbourne property manager used pandemic lockdowns to rediscover a childhood dream of professional wrestling, now competing under a ring persona while managing residential properties by day.

Trainer Danny O’Brien selling elite facility behind Melbourne Cup win
Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Danny O’Brien is selling his world-class Connewarre thoroughbred training facility and a neighbouring family retreat as he scales back Bellarine Peninsula operations to focus on his Melbourne and Geelong stables.

Yapeen: Gold mine tunnel transformed into wine cellar
A central Victorian property near Castlemaine featuring a historic gold mine tunnel converted into a cave wine cellar is on the market at $1.695 million

Margot Robbie snaps up $28m Aussie estate in secret deal
Margot Robbie is reportedly the buyer of a $28 million Currumbin Valley estate on the Gold Coast hinterland, near where she grew up, in a transaction that changed hands last year but is only now being confirmed.

The next Fred of Flintstone: Beloved local lists lakefront shack in tiny fishing village
Fred, the unofficial mayor of Flintstone, a remote Tasmanian fishing village of around 20 permanent residents on Arthurs Lake, is selling his lakefront shack.

You beauty! $99k home with water views for sale, but there’s a catch
A four-bedroom home in Beauty Point, Tasmania, is listed at $99,000 with water views but comes with significant condition caveats.

Real Commercial – Free

Serial Block buyer David Brandi lists Melbourne chapel
David Brandi, who has bought and sold multiple Block properties, has listed an East Melbourne chapel at $3.8 million to $4.18 million.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

Once the last resort, lifestyle helps drive rise of institutional living
Retirement and aged care living is losing its last-resort stigma as operators invest in amenity, community programming and design that reflects what older Australians actually want from their next chapter.

Maha Sinnathamby and Bob Sharpless: The friends who built a city
The story of Greater Springfield, the only privately developed city in Australia, and the unlikely partnership between Maha Sinnathamby and Bob Sharpless that made it happen on what was, by Sharpless’s own admission, unfavourable land 30 kilometres south-west of Brisbane.

Making concrete sexy: Oscar Ledlin is out to fix construction’s dirty secret
Developer-turned-entrepreneur Oscar Ledlin has backed sustainable concrete technology as the most practical way to reduce the construction sector’s carbon footprint, arguing that material innovation rather than material substitution is the more achievable path.

‘Houses like cars’: Robo-builders bring repeatable customisation
QUT professor Michael Milford argues that robotics will enter construction task by task rather than through wholesale disruption, with each incremental automation creating the conditions for the next.

Benni Aroni: Capital is Ready, Housing System Isn’t
Developer and investor Benni Aroni told 650 industry professionals at Urbanity-26 that capital is ready to invest in housing but the regulatory and policy environment makes it too difficult.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Justin Hemmes brings Mr Wong to Melbourne CBD
Justin Hemmes’ Merivale group is planning to open Mr Wong in Melbourne’s CBD before the end of the year, with Totti’s also in the pipeline as the Sydney hospitality operator accelerates its Victorian expansion.

Productivity Commission says three-storey houses should be the norm
The Productivity Commission has called for three-storey homes to be allowed almost anywhere, planning rules to be dismantled, minimum lot sizes reduced and development approvals fast-tracked, warning that it now takes the average family 11 years to save a 20 per cent deposit, up from eight years in 2005.

The bargain $40m Point Piper mansion that hosted the prime minister
The harbourside Point Piper property that hosted Prime Minister Albanese’s now-scrutinised dinner sits on a street where $40 million qualifies as a bargain, illustrating the concentration of wealth in Australia’s most exclusive address.

‘Worst in 30 years’: Housing panic is infecting the economy. Just ask Myer
Myer’s trading update confirms that the property market’s deterioration is flowing into discretionary retail, as consumers with falling asset values and rising mortgage costs pull back from non-essential spending.

Property scion Daniel Grollo goes bankrupt
Daniel Grollo, the third-generation former CEO of Grocon who oversaw the construction of Rialto Towers and the Eureka Tower before the company’s collapse in 2021, has been declared bankrupt owing more than $10 million to the Australian Taxation Office.

‘The real thing’: Hidden coastal playground up for grabs in remote WA
Gnaraloo Station, a 1,000-kilometre-north-of-Perth remote property on the southern reaches of Ningaloo Reef, home to 3,000 goats and purchased by a Northern Irish buyer seeking a Crocodile Dundee lifestyle in the mid-2000s, has come to market.

30-year-old tech whiz takes property spend to $60m with Point Piper pad
Nakatomi co-founder Ben Bray and his architect partner have paid $22 million for a Wolseley Road penthouse in Point Piper, taking the Millennial couple’s total property spend to nearly $60 million across properties from Byron to Bondi.

Former REA chief lists $13.5m Melbourne terrace with rooftop pool
Former REA Group chief Tracey Fellows has listed her Albert Park terrace at a $12.5 million to $13.5 million guide, purchased for $3.375 million in 2012.

The Australian

Bathla Group boss Bhart Bhushan’s holiday island in Victoria revealed
A 22-hectare island in Victoria’s Western Port has emerged as one of the assets tied to Bathla Group’s $3.5 billion in private credit debt, a dilapidated farmhouse on muddy Sandstone Island used to lever an ever-growing pile of borrowings.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Troubled Point Piper billionaire eyes public land grab on Australia’s most expensive street
Phillip Dong Fang Lee and his wife, already subject to tax office liens over their real estate holdings, have approached Woollahra Council to purchase a seven-metre strip of public land adjoining their Point Piper mansion, which would add approximately 250 square metres to their already substantial holding.

A new playground opened in Sydney. Then people began flying off the slide
Appin’s $4.5 million lyrebird-inspired playground opened to community celebration after a six-year wait before reports of injuries from the slide prompted concerns about its design and approval process.

The clash of the real estate agents and the $1m defamation payout
A Sydney District Court has awarded two real estate agents and their agency more than $1 million in damages after a competitor posted defamatory accusations on Facebook.

Sydney’s BridgeClimb founder drops asking price for coastal home
Paul Cave, founder of BridgeClimb, has reduced the asking price on his Pearl Beach holiday home after listing it in October last year with plans to spend more time at his Southern Highlands property.

‘Pray for us’: Church’s response to being dragged into corruption claims
The Diocese of Broken Bay has distanced its parish schools from Catholic Schools NSW ahead of an ICAC hearing examining links between hard-right Liberals, illegal political donations and branch-stacking involving the church’s education body.

The Age

My suburb has a strict eight-year rule but is slowly becoming more than Range Rovers and retirees
Mount Martha’s informal eight-year local acceptance rule is one of the more honest accounts of how coastal communities manage the tension between welcoming newcomers and protecting a character they fear losing.

Daniel Grollo declared bankrupt, New York apartment forfeited as investigation flagged
Daniel Grollo has filed for bankruptcy while his New York penthouse has been forfeited to an American bank, with Australian liquidators also flagging a potential investigation.

The tree-change town where house prices have plunged $133,000
Daylesford’s median house price has fallen by approximately $133,000 as the buyers who drove its pandemic-era tree-change surge pull back, while buyers from NSW, Queensland and SA are now arriving for the value.

The Brisbane Times

Builder bidding from boat in Vietnam, beer in hand, wins Coorparoo auction
A local builder bidding by phone from a boat in Vietnam secured a 653-square-metre Coorparoo block for $1.43 million, paying nearly 62 times the $23,000 it last sold for 49 years ago.

WA Today

Scott Cam once called Fremantle home. But will The Block ever be filmed here?
Block host Scott Cam, who lived in Fremantle in the 1980s, discusses Season 22 airing next week at Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula, and what it would take for the show to film in WA.

The Daily Telegraph

‘Clover, come use our bathrooms’: Shop owner’s challenge to Lord Mayor
Small business owners renting council-owned properties in Erskineville describe facilities in an unfit state while the City of Sydney commits $150 million to a Town Hall Square project.

Homeless camp grows around Sydney’s iconic Queen Victoria Building
Rough sleepers are expanding a camp beneath the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney’s CBD, with reports they have been told they can stay if they keep it tidy.

Sydney’s top estate agents escape cooling property market for luxury European holidays
Sydney’s leading agents are taking European summer holidays as the winter market quietens, with Greece and the south of France the favoured destinations.

Real estate agency collapses into liquidation while suing deceased employee
Trelease Associates Property Management has collapsed owing $2.58 million to unsecured creditors, with its director alleging a trusted employee stole $675,000 and managed accounts without oversight for years.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

The grisly death of Gold Coast developer Heinz Plotky and the mystery that remains unsolved
A long read on the death of developer Heinz Plotky, who built much of the Gold Coast’s skyline before walking into the surf and disappearing.

Councillor fights for residents caught by ‘shock’ new light rail parking rules
Hundreds of Gold Coast residents have been unexpectedly banned from parking in their own streets following new light rail corridor rules, with a councillor calling for urgent review.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Council faces $4.5m repair bill it cannot afford after funds allegedly misused
A South Australian council faces a $4.5 million wastewater system repair bill it cannot fund, with residents who were levied for the works demanding accountability over where those contributions went.

Shadow Baking stops brunch after council cuts outdoor seats for visually impaired
A popular North Adelaide bakery has suspended its brunch service after Adelaide City Council reduced its outdoor seating to protect the clear pathway required by people with visual impairments.