The weird and not-so-wonderful things that get left behind when previous tenants or owners move out feature in this week’s qunatum of quirk.

In one, a Queensland decontamination expert warns that owners have no obligation to tell their tenants that their property was once home to a methamphetamine lab.

And that’s critical information as the residues can cause serious health problems, especially for kids.

Then there’s the couple who were renovating their cottage and discovered the walls were crammed with discarded catalogues. The previous occupant had been a newspaper delivery boy who presumably found it easier to stash the brochures than distribute them.

And another couple discovered an indoor swimming pool under their floor during their reno. These are just a few of the quirky yarns in this week’s feed from Leftfield Communications.

Free Reads

Domain

Australia’s billionaire suburb has been overtaken by 28 more expensive areas
Toorak, long associated with billionaires and record deals including a $136.1 million mansion sale, has been overtaken on price by 28 suburbs, including rivals in Brisbane and Perth and 24 in Sydney.

AC/DC widow splashes $19 million on new Mosman home
O’Linda Young, widow of AC/DC co-founder Malcolm Young, has paid $19 million for an apartment in a new Mosman complex, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Dad forks out almost $3 million on ‘student house’ for his children
An overseas buyer paid almost $3 million for a two-storey semi in Erskineville for his children to live in while at university.

First-home buyers are flocking to this town where houses start at $167k
First-home buyers are moving to Kawerau, a small New Zealand town where prices start around $NZ200,000 ($167,000).

McDonald’s king eyes $20 million payday
Hani Sidaros, who started out working at McDonald’s as a teenager, and his wife Gehan have listed their three-bedroom apartment in Barangaroo’s Crown Residences with hopes of $18.8 million to $20 million, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Sweating bullets’: Reality TV star’s $25,000 renovation disaster
Former reality TV star turned property developer Krystal Hipwell and her husband Neil experienced a renovation setback hours before moving into their new home.

The $450k beach house you’re never allowed to sleep in
A waterfront property listed at $450,000 with uninterrupted views and designer interiors comes with a condition: whoever buys Beach Box No. 54 at Mount Eliza’s Moondah Beach cannot live in it.

‘Almost fell over’: Couple find pool hidden underneath their living room
When Carys Louisa and her partner Marc Lezar moved into their Victorian home, neighbours kept asking whether they planned to restore the pool, which they later found hidden beneath the living room floor.

Kyle Sandilands weighs offers on $5m estate amid portfolio reset
Kyle Sandilands is in no rush to sell his country retreat but is heeding his wife’s suggestion that owning two holiday houses without a job is not ideal.

EXCLUSIVE: Nine months later, the two unsold Block homes are finally under offer
The two homes that did not sell during The Block’s 2025 Daylesford season have reportedly gone under offer, nine months after failing to sell at the televised auction.

ABC Online

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie champions homes where landholders include donating developer
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie approved town planning changes for a zone where landowners included a developer who donated $50,000 to the LNP for lunch with him, raising questions about perceptions of conflict of interest.

Realestate.com.au

Goodbye quarter acre: Is there a new ‘dream’ Aussie lot size?
As cities densify and costs rise, the quarter-acre block is becoming less attainable, and debate is shifting toward smaller lots.

Ghost of census past: The number haunting millions of Aussies
A Census question on bedrooms, occupants and temporary absences highlights a contrast between housing pressure and a large amount of under-used residential space, which analysts hope five years of housing shortage will have shifted.

Interest rate threat pushes families to food banks
Research indicates some families are cutting back on essentials amid the threat of another rate rise, with some parents going without meals and homeowners borrowing against their properties.

Inside musician Daniel Johns’ impressive real estate portfolio
Former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has begun selling much of his real estate portfolio, built with earnings from his music career and worth as much as $20 million, prompting speculation about his plans.

Lime Bikes clogging up suburbs after City2Surf
After about 77,000 runners finished the City2Surf at Bondi Beach on Sunday, share bikes such as Lime Bikes have accumulated across parts of Sydney as participants made their way home from the 14km event.

Widow of restaurateur lists Vaucluse home with $12m guide
Karen Pizem, widow of Sydney restaurateur Wolf “Wolfie” Pizem, has listed her Vaucluse home for a September 12 auction with a $12 million guide. Wolfie Pizem was known for venues including Wolfie’s, The Waterfront, Italian Village and The Coachman.

Actress Isabel Lucas’ Byron Bay home for sale
Actor Isabel Lucas has listed her Byron Bay home, which she has used while splitting her time between Australia and the US over the past decade

Anonymous couple leases St Kilda block for $1
An anonymous Melbourne couple bought a rundown St Kilda apartment block and leased it to youth homelessness charity Bridge It for $1 a year over 20 years.

Jamie Durie’s visionary mansion gets another price prune
Jamie Durie’s mansion in Avalon Beach is reported to have had a further price reduction.

Eddie Perfect offloads Mornington Peninsula secret retreat
Eddie Perfect, an actor, comedian and composer, has sold his Mornington Peninsula home after a nearly six-month campaign.

Historic racing track once linked to Squizzy Taylor back on market
The former Lancefield racing track, owned by harness racing’s Petroff family, is back on the market with a six-figure reduction in price expectations.

The Block’s disastrous Daylesford homes finally sold
Both of The Block’s unsold Daylesford properties from last year’s season appear to have sold.

Rogue paperboy’s secret stash found inside cottage’s stunning $3m transformation
Mining technology entrepreneurs Kim and David Eagles found thousands of catalogues stuffed inside the walls of a West End cottage at 16 Avebury Street, left by a former paperboy, when they opened up the timber frame during a $3 million transformation of the property.

‘Thought it was mould’: Silent rental horror making kids sick
Queensland decontamination specialist Steve Annells warns families could unknowingly move into rental homes with methamphetamine residue, as there is no legal requirement for landlords to disclose a property’s history to tenants.

Real Commercial

Council ignites ‘culture war’ over shop signs
Strathfield Council has voted to require English on business signs alongside any other language, drawing criticism in one of the country’s most multilingual communities.

How Gen Z and the TikTok generation are spending big on vinyl records
Independent record stores are growing in Australia, with Melbourne home to more than 119 vinyl music stores, a revival driven in part by an online trend.

RSLs are failing members with exorbitant prices and dreadful customer service
The article reflects on the role of RSL clubs in Australian communities since their establishment in 1916 to support returning servicemen and women, and their function as places offering affordable meals and drinks, while examining criticism of pricing and service.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Data centres are on a tear, but property fund warns all is not well
When US lender Silicon Valley Bank collapsed three years ago, investors moved quickly to write off the commercial property market, which was already contending with higher office vacancy after the pandemic.

‘This will all be yours one day’: the empty promise destroying wealth
A poorly drafted will has led to a legal dispute likely to result in the sale of a $7.8 million farm near Albury, NSW, at the centre of a family disagreement.

Set among Bellevue Hill billionaires, artists’ retreat eyes $30m
The Bellevue Hill home of the late Australian pop artist Martin Sharp has been listed with a price guide of $30 million.

The Australian

Billionaire Nick Politis buys $20m apartment in Sydney’s One Circular Quay
Billionaire and Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis has bought an apartment in Lendlease’s One Circular Quay development, paying up to $20 million for a three-bedroom apartment in the 59-level tower at 1 Alfred Street.

Rental crisis creates new wave of older housemates to beat soaring costs
Adult children are expected to stay at home longer and more older Australians are turning to share housing as tenants face rising rents linked to the federal budget’s investor tax changes.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Why it will take five years, 14 train line closures and $220m to fix a notorious Sydney bottleneck
Construction of a new seven-lane bridge at Epping in Sydney’s north to ease a road bottleneck is running late due to delays in awarding the $220 million contract.

Why this Sydney metro station will have twice as many underground platforms
A large excavation near Sydney Olympic Park, about 200 metres long and 37 metres wide, has been dug to fit four side-by-side platforms for an underground station on the $29 billion Metro West line between Westmead and the CBD.

Dark roofs, no trees and black roads: The Sydney suburbs designed to get even hotter
The western Sydney suburb of Marsden Park, developed since 2013, illustrates design choices poorly suited to rising heat, the article argues, noting western Sydney has recorded some of the hottest temperatures on record.

Family who introduced broccolini to Australia list $13 million home
A Vaucluse home owned by the family behind Perfection Fresh Australia, which introduced broccolini to Australia in 1999, is for sale.

Buyer pays $2.91m for inner west semi for kids to live in while at uni
A two-storey Erskineville semi sold for $2.91 million at auction on Saturday to an overseas buyer who the selling agent said bought it for his children to live in while at university.

The Age

House from The Block finally sells after $400,000 price cut
One of the Daylesford homes that failed to sell at the finale of the last season of The Block sold on Tuesday, after a price reduction of as much as $400,000 over the past year.

Car clash: Private vehicles and the true price the nation pays
A University of Queensland study estimates Australia’s private cars cost the country at least $316 billion a year, with the public covering about half.

7 million litres of diesel just 250m from homes: The data centre plan locals didn’t know about
The former Ford car factory at Campbellfield is set to become a $1.1 billion data centre campus that would double Melbourne’s current data centre power draw when complete, under the government’s fast-track major project approval process.

Chloe’s landlord sold her home to a billionaire. Then she was told to leave
Chloe Aldenhoven had rented a one-bedroom apartment at 5 Stonehaven Court in Toorak since October 2021, in a 1960s block of 12 units in a quiet cul-de-sac.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Developer fined $17,000 as council after red Palm Beach canal investigation
A builder will clean an entrance to a Palm Beach waterway after canals turned red during a construction job, and has been fined $17,000, with the council reviewing canal pollution more broadly.

New Burleigh light rail sparks backlash over three-hour parking limits
The opening of the light rail to Burleigh has been affected for some by a new three-hour parking limit in surrounding streets.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Dukes Real Estate boss Robert De Jonge stripped of property license after tribunal ruled he’s not a ‘fit and proper person’
An Adelaide real estate operator has lost his property licence after a tribunal found he was not a fit and proper person to manage homes. The article notes he had previously lost his driver’s licence eight times.