It’s one of the most fundamental questions for people thinking about moving into strata. What about the backyard? backyard?  And, more to the point, are apartments suitable places to raise children?

ABC online columnist Rhiannon Stevens raise the question in this article and reaches two entirely valid and slightly contradictory conclusions.

Firstly, Australian apartments are incredibly badly designed and built. But also, apartment living can be great.

Meanwhile, if you feel deprived because you don’t have a backyard, and hanker for a glimpse of greenery, what about emulating the people who’ve been caught planting plastic grass on their nature strips.

They’re just a couple of the Quirky stories from Left Field Communications’ feed this week.

Free reads

Domain

Builder’s $1 gamble turns into $1.6 million payday
What looked like a demolition job has become a million-dollar windfall. A builder who purchased an abandoned mansion for just $1 has transformed it into an eye-watering US$1.13 million ($1,650,788) investment.

Rich Lister sells $11 million ‘spare home’ while renovating $38 million mansion
Australian businessman Terry Tzaneros and his wife, Anne, have offloaded one of their Sydney trophy homes for a princely sum.

Katharine Hepburn’s long term Manhattan home gets price cut as sale stalls
The former Manhattan home of film icon Katharine Hepburn is struggling to find a buyer.

‘I did not expect this’: Landlord stuns renter with heartwarming move
As rental prices soar amid cost-of-living pressures and tight supply, it’s been a tough stretch for tenants. This week, however, one story is striking a different tone.

Ronan Keating splashes $6.3m on private ‘treehouse’ home
Ronan Keating and his media personality wife, Storm, have added to their property portfolio with a unique Sydney purchase.

Commercial Real Estate

Refurbished former HQ of Lonely Planet travel guides set to change hands
Evolving from a 1920s wool store to the home of travel guide company Lonely Planet, this Footscray heritage building has been reborn with a sustainable lease on life and is on the market with a price guide of $30 million-plus.

ABC Online

In one of the world’s most visited countries, the local population is vanishing
Greece is spending billions to reverse an alarming population loss that some are calling an existential threat. “The villages, they are becoming ghost towns,” says Lambros Papalambros, a walking-tour guide and lifelong resident of the area, as we climb the steep path into town.

End of an era for Tharwa General Store after a century being owned by one family
On the edge of the Murrumbidgee River, about 40 kilometres south of Canberra, sits a weatherboard building that has outlasted floods, bushfires, and even a tornado for more than a century.

Realestate.com.au

Aussie woman buys Italy home for less than price of ute
A woman has lifted the lid on how she bought a fully-renovated Italy home for less than the cost of a ute in a bid to escape soaring property prices and bills in Australia. Sophie Bouali and her tradie husband Adam have made the leap abroad after choosing to forgo rising grocery and mortgage bills for the Italian countryside.

Surprising reason Aussie mum ditched Sydney for Ireland
An Aussie mum has ditched Sydney’s $1 million property market for a new life in Ireland, claiming the harbour city is fast becoming a “city without grandchildren”. Stephanie Hunt took to TikTok, revealing the move was driven by a desperate need for community and a “village” that young Aussie parents could no longer afford.

Tenant sparks fierce debate after moving kitchen island into garden for a barbecue
A tenant who shifted a wooden kitchen island into the backyard for a barbecue and left it through days of rain has ignited a viral stoush – and a timely reminder of where renting rights stop and responsibilities begin for Australians.

Landlords discover ‘horror’ scene after nightmare tenants reduce $2m Sydney home to biohazard
A Tasmanian couple’s $2 million investment property in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills has been reduced to an unimaginable scene of “horror” by nightmare tenants, leaving behind a biohazard so extreme that professional cleaners have described it as unprecedented.

One of Queensland’s five castle homes sells for $8m during strong Brisbane auction week
One of Queensland’s only castles has sold at auction for an eye-watering $8m over the weekend, with Brisbane’s housing market reporting results ahead of the rest of the nation.

Banned fake lawns secretly installed on council verges despite crackdown
Banned fake lawns are quietly appearing on councilowned nature strips in Sydney and Melbourne, slipping past inspectors because they look so real – even as fresh thermal imaging shows artificial turf can bake to nearly 90C, turbocharging crackdowns over heat, microplastics and biodiversity harm.

Couple selling $4.6m Walkerville prize home won on $100 ticket
A couple of savvy sellers are hoping to turn a $500 investment into a multimillion-dollar windfall by selling the luxury Walkerville home they won last year.

The new Australian dream: Why buyers are choosing floating homes over property
David and Eleonora Bresnehan had $2 million to spend on their dream holiday escape. They could have bought a Gold Coast apartment, instead, they bought a Riviera motor yacht.

Pay up or lose it: Dozens of homes in council rates blitz
A last-minute rush saved more than two dozen homes from an Aussie council’s forced sale – but five still went to auction with frenzied bidding seeing one surge from $210k to over $1.4m.

Lawn king’s urgent backyard warning over silent danger
A respected lawn king has called for Aussies to be on the alert and conduct urgent backyard clearance after a dangerous outbreak ‘right outside their door’.

‘The market is tough’: Price drop on Michael Clarke mansion
Price expectations have dropped for the luxury Vaucluse home owned by Australian cricket legend Michael Clarke, with its veteran agent admitting: “The market is tough.” When the property first went up for sale in November last year, Highland Double Bay’s Bill Malouf, who has seen plenty of challenging markets over close to four decades, said: “It will have a two in front of it.

Mitch and Corinne Pryor race to finish Grand Designs Transformations house
More than 400 buyers have swarmed a Mitcham home after Grand Designs Transformations stars Mitch and Corinne Pryor pushed a $500,000 renovation to the limit.

Hawthorn childhood home of AFL great Robert DiPierdomenico sold
The Hawthorn home that Hawks legend Robert “Dipper” DiPierdomenico grew up in has been sold, ending a more than 100-day marathon sale.

The Block Mount Eliza cast sparks auction warning
The upcoming season of The Block is already under scrutiny, with fans questioning whether its latest line-up matches the prestige of the multimillion-dollar homes being built in Mount Eliza.

Real Commercial

Guy Grossi farewells Carlton North’s Brandon Hotel
Celebrated Melbourne chef and hospitality guru Guy Grossi has offloaded a Carlton North pub listed with a $2m-plus range.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

Glebe Social Housing Project Delivers ‘Density Without Compromise’
A social housing renewal at Glebe has tripled its housing yield, delivering 75 homes in place of 19 as the NSW Government pushes to prove higher-density development can work within established inner-city communities.

View.com.au

Your roof could earn you $50,000. Find out how.
For decades, we’ve looked at our rooftops as little more than protection from the blazing Aussie sun and belting winter rain. Then, they became a place to bolt on some solar panels to shave a few dollars off the quarterly bill.

The most common painting mistake, according to the Three Birds Renovations team
According to data from Roy Morgan, 6.2 million Australians planned a DIY project over the Easter holidays last year, with painting jobs at the top of the list. And if there’s one group of people who know how to tackle a DIY or painting project around the home it’s the Three Birds Renovations team.

It could be the ultimate Dragons fan pad – but the new owner doesn’t like footy
A Wollongong apartment which is perhaps the ultimate St George Illawarra Dragons fan’s home has changed hands.

Exclusive: MAFS expert John Aiken lists ‘very fun’ wine country escape
After selling his multimillion-dollar mansion in Sydney, Married at First Sight expert John Aiken is offloading a weekend retreat in one of Australia’s top wine regions.

‘It’s super exciting’: Sunrise host Edwina Bartholomew reveals latest move in rural town
Three years after taking ownership of a historic hotel in Carcoar, Sunrise television host Edwina Bartholomew has expanded her business portfolio in the Central West.

How The Ghan kept one Adelaide auction on track
With the iconic Ghan train line as an unlikely backdrop, 15A Exeter Terrace, Renown Park delivered a quietly competitive auction, where four bidders contested in front of around 20 onlookers in Adelaide’s inner-north.

My Reno Rules judge Neale Whitaker reveals ‘before’ photos of his own reno project
Having sold their renovated cottage on the NSW South Coast, TV personality Neale Whitaker and his husband David are packing to move to their new home nearby.

The engine room that once powered the Jamberoo Milk Factory to be auctioned
A piece of Jamberoo’s history is on the market. ‘The Powerhouse’ was once the literal engine room that powered the famous Jamberoo Milk Factory, and has been listed for sale.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Tony Denny snaps up Rose Bay home with harbour views
Tony Denny, an Australian entrepreneur and investor best known for building one of Europe’s largest used car dealership groups and later reinvesting that wealth into property and private credit, has made his latest real estate move, acquiring a harbour-front mansion in Rose Bay.

Crypto guru digs deep to create Mosman’s ultimate wine cellar
When it comes to subterranean luxury lairs, Bruce Wayne has nothing on Mosman blockchain guru Tobias Abbey. In 2021, he and his wife Elizabeth paid $21.5 million for the Clifton Gardens mansion called Stonehenge, which sits on more than 2000 square metres of park-like gardens and was previously owned by former Macquarie Group chairman Peter Warne and his wife Frances.

The Australian

Toorak tanking: Jacinta Allan taxes hit Melbourne’s elite property postcodes
The value of deluxe homes in Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs has sunk as top-end investors tire of a “relentless” attacks on property owners by the Allan government. More taxes, stricter compliance rules and higher interest rates, in conjunction with an ageing population wishing to exit top suburbs like Toorak, has led to a contraction in most of Melbourne’s rich-list hot spots.

The Sydney Morning Herald

How bin chickens, kittens and possums test Sydney’s delayed metro line
Completing the delayed final stretch of Sydney’s $30.4 billion M1 metro rail line in the southwest has thrown up a long list of challenges in turning a more than century-old heavy railway into one for driverless trains.

Sydney’s $2.5m taxpayer-owned property that’s become a graveyard for waste
A NSW government agency has been formally sanctioned by the state’s environmental watchdog after a $2.5 million taxpayer-owned property in Sydney’s west was allowed to deteriorate into a dumping ground littered with construction waste, car parts, machinery and more than 500 tyres.

‘It wears away at the pay packet’: Grandmothers cut work hours to do free childcare
Sarah Connors is in her 60s and at the top of her professional game as a lawyer and team leader at a government agency. Like many mothers of her era, after her (five) children grew up, she could focus on her career.

Darling Point developer has royal ties – just don’t mention former Prince Andrew
Italian aristocrat Edoardo “Edo” MapelliMozzi’s name no doubt offered all the cachet a developer could wish for when he was unveiled as one of the people behind Sydney’s latest trophy home development, 81 Yarranabbe. The 42-year-old is, after all, the founder of London-based prestige developer Banda Property, as well as the son of Count Alessandro MapelliMozzi and heir to the family seat, Villa MapelliMozzi – an 18-bedroom neoclassical mansion in Casatenovo, an hour from Lake Como in Italy.

The Age

My suburb is so safe that if I collapse, a doctor will trip over me on their way to get coffee
When I moved into my suburb 10 years ago, I was in my 50s and still feeling vibrant, dare I say, invincible. Aches and pains and procedures were not at the forefront of my mind. But how fortuitous, a decade later, that I had moved into Melbourne’s premier medical precinct.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Teenager launches petition to fix the housing ‘trap’ squeezing young Aussies out of the market
Sebastian is 13. He’s calculated that buying an average house will cost over $5m by the time he reaches middle age. And he’s taking political action to change that.

The Brisbane Times

My suburb has a street with the funniest name in Brisbane. But the joke’s on all of us
Monday morning coffee on the front verandah is my ritual. In spring jacarandas bloom; in summer it’s poincianas. All year there is birdsong.

‘Day spa for kids’: Developer plans premium childcare centre with sound and scent machines
A premium childcare centre described by the developer as “like a day spa for kids” – with built-in sound and scent machines to reduce overstimulation – is planned for a suburb in Brisbane’s south-west.

Push to get cyclists, scooters off footpaths – and onto busy roads – behind new laws
E-bike cyclists and e-scooter riders are being pushed to use high-speed roads with traffic, instead of footpaths and shared paths, under Queensland government laws that will be passed this year.

WA Today

WA borrowers have the bleakest outlook in the nation. Here’s why
West Australians have the lowest level of borrower sentiment in the nation, according to the latest survey from the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia.