At this spooky time of the year it’s only appropriate that we learn about an ex-convent for sale complete with its own cemetery.  But hey, if its haunted, at least the ghosts will probably be silent.

Then there’s a house built so close to its neighbour that you can fit a tennis ball between the roofs, a 12-sides timber weekender that’s only accessible by boat (presumably hence the $275k price tag), why pet hotels are part of a commercial property boom and how a council lost its battle to have residential caravan parks deemed over-55s only.

And then there’s the house with an entrance that looks like a crack in a concrete block only to reveal an architect-designed timber gem with two-storey windows inside.

All that and more in this week’s curated feed from Leftfield Communications. You’ll get a whole lot more every day for free if you sign up.

Free Reads

Domain

Cracked concrete block sells for staggering sum
A concrete block with a giant crack through the middle has sold for an eye-watering sum.

On a skinny Sydney property budget? Auburn skinny house delivers for first-home buyers
A skinny weatherboard cottage just 7.6 metres wide is drawing first-home buyers keen for a standalone house with land.

Queensland health worker attempts to build a home for $500k with zero experience
A Queensland healthcare worker with no construction experience has set out to build his own house for $500,000.

A retired grandfather won a $13.25m dream home with a $5 ticket. Here’s what it actually sold for
A Queensland dream home that drew wide international attention has sold for about $3 million below its original valuation.

TV king Reg Grundy’s country estate listed for $36 million
The home of late television king Reg Grundy, the man behind Neighbours, Prisoner and Wheel of Fortune, has hit the market.

Sporting icon Erling Haaland snaps up $4m villa 6000 km from home
Global football star Erling Haaland has added to his property portfolio, reportedly paying US$2.9 million ($4 million) for a five-bedroom villa at Manchester City’s first branded residential project in Abu Dhabi.

Billionaire’s $46m dream home has become his neighbours’ nightmare
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has spent more than a decade turning his San Francisco estate into a luxury retreat, and his neighbours have had enough.

Sydney waterfront property for $275k comes with a catch
A rare Sydney waterfront property has hit the market for just $275,000, but there is a catch.

Sam Wood lists $7m Brighton home from custody
A Melbourne mansion owned by fitness entrepreneur Sam Wood and his wife Snezanahas hit the market as the former TV star remains in custody over two domestic violence-related charges.

Commercial Real Estate

Pet hotels draw commercial buyers with ultra-long leases
Pet hotels are better known for pampered pooches than property yields, but a cluster of specialist facilities hitting the market suggests investors are eyeing the real estate behind Australia’s booming pet-care industry.

ABC Online

Brooms Head caravan park resident wins over-55s case against council
A caravan park resident has won a tribunal case against Clarence Valley Council after it tried to ban anyone under 55 from living at the Brooms Head site, with the tribunal unable to identify any clear purpose for the rule.

Geelong council steps in to block Coles supermarket opening in Point Lonsdale
The City of Greater Geelong has applied to rezone a parcel of land near Point Lonsdale to block commercial development, a move that would stop a proposed Coles supermarket after community opposition to the project.

Restored cottage gives insight into life on Snowy Scheme
Finding accommodation for workers on major infrastructure projects can seem a modern problem, but it is not.

Proposed Dalby data centre to ‘air-cool’ operations and harvest rainwater from roof
The proposed Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby says it will air-cool its operations and harvest rainwater from its roof rather than draw on bores or town water.

Realestate.com.au

When your home is your gallery: Inside Australia’s ultimate live-work spaces
Live-in studios and artists’ homes are redefining prestige real estate, with buyers increasingly valuing homes that express individuality, taking readers inside some of Australia’s ultimate live-work spaces.

Camden couple race to regrow trashed backyard in time for home wedding and $5000 prize
Most brides spend the month before their wedding fretting over seating charts, but Sydney fashion designer Denisse Vera has spent hers in the mud.

Famous Sydney YouTube home for sale for $18m
The six-bedroom North Bondi home of Justin and Brooke Norris, of the Norris Nuts YouTube family, has been listed with $18 million hopes.

Rachael Finch and Michael Miziner sell Gold Coast site with approved house plans
Wellness entrepreneur Rachael Finch and husband Michael Miziner have listed their vacant Gold Coast block, just eight months after the model announced plans to move closer to her mother.

Housing standard debate after tradie’s Aus find
A Queensland tradie has bluntly summed up the state of new housing after filming a home built so close to its neighbour it barely seemed worth a fence.

Historic convent hits market with own cemetery
Forget trick-or-treating: this historic convent has come to market with its own cemetery out the back.

Knights coach Justin Holbrook scores new $3.4m Newcastle home
Shortly before steering the Newcastle Knights into the NRL Grand Final, head coach Justin Holbrook and wife Natalie bought in the silvertail coastal district of Merewether.

Termite-damaged Mermaid Waters home fetches $2.648m at auction after year on market
A termite and mould-affected “renovator’s delight” owned by the family behind Gold Coast dining institutions Ristorante Fellini and Ecostudio Fellini has sold under the hammer for $2.648 million.

How household energy scores are helping home buyers and sellers
Household energy scores are gaining traction in Australia, helping buyers understand running costs and showing how much sellers have invested in efficiency upgrades, as more owners look to cut power bills and lift their homes’ performance.

Home builder swaps beds for sleeping bags in fundraising win to help end homelessness
Metricon chief executive Brad Duggan joined his Melbourne team for the home builder’s inaugural office overnighter, swapping beds for sleeping bags to help end homelessness.

Man’s lawn stolen, neighbours say get over it
A lawn-obsessed homeowner was left shattered after waking to find half of his pristine front lawn apparently vanished overnight.

Sydney investor snaps up three houses for $340k
Priced out of the harbour city, 38-year-old Sydneysider Kaisser Khater has built a regional NSW portfolio of three houses for $340,000 over the past six months.

Council fines entire street for parking on kerb
A suburban parking crackdown has erupted into a stoush after residents of one narrow Sydney street were fined for parking the way locals say they have for more than half a century.

Former publican Susie Carleton lists ‘magical’ Bundeena getaway
Susie Carleton, former publican of Paddington’s Bellevue Hotel, has listed her “magical” Bundeena beachfront getaway.

Ex-TV presenter Beverley O’Connor lists Brighton home
Former Melbourne Football Club director and television journalist Beverley O’Connor has listed her Brighton home with a $4.7 million to $5.1 million range.

Vietnam veteran lists rare $439k Portland beachfront haven
A Vietnam veteran who spent decades supporting fellow servicemen is selling the retirement haven that helped him cope with trauma.

Morecroft House: East Tce landmark with royal title history for sale
Few certificates of title carry names as impressive as the East Terrace home that vendors Robyn and Chris bought more than three decades ago.

Real Commercial

Carnival slashes Aussie fleet in half, fares set to rise
Carnival has dealt Australian holidaymakers a double blow, halving its local fleet while introducing dynamic pricing on extras such as drinks and Wi-Fi.

‘Unlicensed’ backfire: Tradie’s $12k bench fight smashes bistro
A trendy French bistro has been ordered to pay a tradie more than $12,000 after an attempt to classify dining benches as “unlicensed building work” backfired in court.

Pizza Hut boss flags return of iconic all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants across Australia
Pizza Hut could bring back its famous all-you-can-eat restaurants, with its Australian boss saying he would “look seriously” at a comeback if fans demanded it.

How Haigh’s Chocolate is winning hearts and minds by resisting shrinkflation
As one of Australia’s oldest family-owned chocolate makers, Adelaide’s Haigh’s Chocolates is winning hearts by refusing to shrink its bars in an era of shrinkflation.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

Western Sydney’s 109,000-Home Pipeline Hits a Delivery Wall
Western Sydney’s housing pipeline has topped 109,000 homes, but construction cannot keep pace, with some growth precincts recording only a fraction of the starts they need.

Melbourne’s State Theatre Reopens After a Makeover You Cannot See
“What did you change?” is the question that best captures the success of a $256 million refurbishment of Melbourne’s Ian Potter State Theatre, modernising the 2000-seat venue while preserving its defining interiors.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

This Sydney CBD workspace is more like a private members’ club
Want staff back in the office? One renovated heritage building on Sydney’s George Street is pitching luxury suites with boardroom drinks and a chauffeured Bentley service, in a CBD workspace closer to a private members’ club than a cubicle farm.

Data centre giants sound alarm as building backlash, headwinds grow
Microsoft and NextDC have warned the NSW government in closed-door meetings that they could shift data centre investment to Victoria or South-East Asia unless power supply and construction speed improve.

This empty lot near London goes to the heart of data centre jitters
Work on Nscale’s AI campus for the UK was meant to start this year, but grid-connection delays and other setbacks mean it will not be ready until the early to mid-2030s.

Couple sells for $1.79m, buys across the road two days later
A five-bedroom house on 428 square metres at 16 Khartoum Street, West Footscray, sold before auction for $1.79 million, with the sellers buying again just across the road two days later.

Supreme Court battle erupts in Perth’s elite enclave Mosman Park
With the Indian Ocean on one side and Swan River views on the other, Mosman Park in Perth’s affluent west has long drawn some of the country’s wealthiest residents, but even its leafy streets are not immune to neighbourhood feuds.

Di Pilla lands big fish for DigiCo’s Sydney data centre campus
Big data centre contracts are usually shrouded in secrecy, with the world’s largest AI developers and hyperscalers reluctant to tip off rivals.

Step inside this extreme makeover by Sydney’s hottest architect
Architect William Smart has given a Victorian-era terrace in Sydney’s Darlinghurst what the AFR calls the mullet treatment, all restraint at the front and exuberance at the back.

The Australian

Showers, sewerage, suburbia: The switches that shaped the Aussie way of life
The Australian way of life evolved through decades of collective choices rather than appearing fully formed, in a reflection by demographer Bernard Salt.

Crown in the black as casinos under the pump
A full recovery for Crown Resorts remains years away as the nation’s biggest casino operator battles tough new gaming laws and a slowing economy.

The Sydney Morning Herald

How Elise turned a squashy, messy terrace into an inner west retreat
When property and construction executive Elise Cockerill moved to Sydney from Melbourne two decades ago, she was first drawn to Paddington’s leafy terraces.

‘My dream home’: Buyer pays $4.5 million for his childhood beach house
An original beach shack in Mona Vale has escaped the wrecking ball after a man whose parents rented it when he was a child saw it listed and bought it at auction for $4.5 million.

Former NSW opposition leader lists renovated convict-built home for $13m
Former NSW opposition leader Peter Collins and his wife Jennine Leonarder-Collins have listed their Werrington County home in western Sydney with a $13 million guide.

The regional NSW towns that boomed most over the past year
Rents are higher than a year ago across almost all of regional NSW, led by a spike in smaller towns as priced-out tenants look further afield.

The Age

Victoria lands $350m federal bonus to improve liveability
Victoria will receive $350 million to improve community infrastructure in growing suburbs and regional hubs, becoming the first state to qualify for the federal government’s liveability bonus.

The regional Victorian towns that boomed most in the past year
Asking rents are rising in some of Victoria’s lesser-known regional towns as an exodus of investors shrinks already limited rental stock.

‘Not liveable:’ Heritage inner-west home sells to renovator for $1.01m
A double-fronted three-bedroom heritage house in Seddon, described by its agent as “not liveable”, has sold for $1.01 million, almost $200,000 over reserve.

The Daily Telegraph

Shoalhaven tourist parking fee plan slammed by locals
A South Coast community known for its world-class holiday spots has slammed a council proposal to introduce paid parking at some of its most popular destinations, but only for tourists.

Mambo Wetlands buffer zone at centre of Salamander Bay development dispute
It is a housing-versus-habitat clash, with a Hunter council pushing ahead, despite fierce opposition, with controversial plans to sell sensitive land next to the protected Mambo Wetlands at Salamander Bay to help address the housing shortfall.

Regional migration surges to record levels as young Australians reject capital city living
Sydney is losing residents at record rates, with regional NSW now the nation’s top destination for city-dwellers seeking space, affordability and a better lifestyle, as regional migration surges to record levels.

Dozens of e-bikes seized in Sydney’s south, Illawarra as crackdown continues
Police and transport authorities have seized dozens more illegal e-bikes in a blitz across Sydney’s south and the Illawarra, following similar raids earlier this year.

The Herald Sun

National poll reveals Victorians are Australia’s most pessimistic over infrastructure quality and project costs
Victorians are the most pessimistic taxpayers in the country, a national poll finds, with just a quarter believing the state is heading in the right direction and a bare majority satisfied with infrastructure despite billions spent.

The Courier Mail

The great race: How to beat Brisbane traffic
To test the case for a dedicated Brisbane water taxi, The Courier Mail staged a race across the city, pitting an Uber against a CityCat and a water taxi stand-in to see which came out fastest.

Queensland Government threatens legal action against Moreton City Council for the way it’s helping the homeless
A south-east Queensland council has been threatened with legal action by the state government, which says allowing homeless people to camp in a designated area of a local park is illegal.

The West Australian

Victor Goh Elizabeth Quay buildings: DevelopmentWA says scrutiny of project financing ‘not in remit’
DevelopmentWA has told a parliamentary inquiry it does not know who invested in Victor Goh’s building projects at Elizabeth Quay, despite banking nearly $200 million from selling the land.

The Brisbane Times

Auction crowd roars as classic Queenslander’s $1.96 million sale defies slump
A Queenslander held by one family for decades has shrugged off Brisbane’s slumping market, sailing past its reserve to sell for $1.96 million on Saturday.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Southport Squash Centre hits the market with potential for high-rise Gold Coast tower
The Gold Coast squash centre where criminals dangled a man from the windows in the cult film Spit is up for sale as a high-rise development site.