If you think your levies are out of control, spare a thought for the residents of Couran Court resort in Queensland’s South Stradbroke Island who have been without basic services for two years and have now been told they have to pay $22 million in backdated fees.

According to this story in ABC online, after a years-long legal battle, Queensland’s highest court this month upheld three earlier judgments that a debt of $22 million was owed to different utility providers.

Many residents have been left with no option but to abandon their properties as the costs pf private generators and sewage systems mount, all because the homes are built on private, rather than council controlled land.

Residents say the decision, which means utilities including water, power and sewerage to the resort’s homes will remain cut off, is “shocking”.

That’s just one of the quirky stories in this week’s feed from Left Field Communications.

Free Reads

Domain

‘Personal banker’: Tenant shocked by request to fund new Tesla
It began with a text message that seemed too incredible to be true. The message, sent after 8pm one day this month, was from a landlord to their tenant in the US asking when they might stop by the property and pick up the rent cheque.

Samantha Armytage nears sale of $3m Hyams Beach escape
Samantha Armytage looks like she’s found a buyer for her seaside retreat. The Golden Bachelor host first attempted to offload the Hyams Beach property in 2023, but eventually withdrew it from market after it failed to find a buyer at a $3.2 million guide.

‘Trapped in a prison’: Mystery fence sparks outrage among village residents
Outraged residents of a UK village say they feel like prisoners in their own homes after a mysterious spiked metal fence was erected just metres from their windows. The imposing barrier appeared beside the estate in Woodlands, a new-build housing estate in Canterbury in the southeast of England, The Mirror reports.

Former church returns to market after 32 years and mammoth restoration
When Laurence Somerset stumbled across this Ukrainian Orthodox church in Woolloongabba, she immediately saw its value.

Retail heiress moving on from stunning Belrose estate
Luciana Ravazzotti Langenhoven, the daughter of one of South Africa’s richest men, is moving on from her Northern Beaches mansion. The non-executive chairperson and heiress of Italtile, a luxury bathware retailer, has listed the Belrose trophy home she shares with husband, Pierre, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

What happens when your Oscar award goes up in flames?
For years, Oscar winners have kept Hollywood’s most famous trophy in some unexpected places. Russell Crowe once joked he kept his among pet chickens, while Jennifer Hudson built a hidden wall that opened into a trophy room. It was said that Charlie Chaplin turned the accolade into a doorstop.

‘Oprah of China’ slashes price again on $27m townhouse that won’t sell
What started as a high-profile property listing is proving harder to offload than expected. Emmy-winning television host and entrepreneur Yue-Sai Kan, also known as the “Oprah of China”, has slashed the asking price on her lavish New York City townhouse after years on and off the market.

NRL star Mitch Moses sells Ryde home after second attempt
Parramatta Eels captain Mitch Moses and his wife Bri have sold their Ryde home after a second attempt to offload the property. The deal for the Federation-era residence, known as Karoola, was finalised on February 28 in an undisclosed deal.

‘Is this a joke?’: Landlord’s ‘DIY’ request over repair sparks fierce debate
When a renter contacted their landlord about a broken washing machine, they likely expected a repair to be booked. Yet, the reply they received proved a shock.

The $7 million dream home that held a family ‘hostage’
When Katelin Holloway and Ben Ramirez bought their spacious house five years ago, they thought it was their dream home. It is quickly turning into a costly nightmare.

The $60 million mega mansion with a $54,000 monthly catch
The owner of a mega mansion on the famed “Millionaire’s Mile” is struggling to find a buyer –  and the staggering price tag might not be the only hurdle. The trophy home, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway in Hillsboro Beach, Florida, was first listed in 2023 for US$70 million ($97 million).

ABC Online

Waterfront homes to be demolished for Mooloolah River Interchange
Bulldozers are set to demolish 52 waterfront homes on the Sunshine Coast, evicting dozens of desperate families in the middle of a housing crisis. After decades of political indecision, the Queensland government is building the long-delayed Mooloolah River Interchange.

Corellas wreak havoc in Bunbury prompting council’s call to report sightings
Corellas are damaging lights, sports grounds, and trees in the West Australian city of Bunbury. The South West Football League says even footy sirens don’t scare the birds.

David Young’s rocky two-decade quest to build a Trump Tower on the Gold Coast
David Young, the developer envisioning a Gold Coast Trump Tower, had $7.96 cash to his name and was signing himself into financial oblivion. It was 2010 and his debts were crippling.

How a tropical city found itself on water restrictions at the height of the wet season
Darwin River Dam’s pumping infrastructure was flooded this week, taking the city’s main water supply offline and forcing thousands of residents to boil their drinking water for 48 hours. The Northern Territory’s Power and Water Corporation has stood by its response to the situation after concerns were raised about how the dam failure was communicated.

Realestate.com.au

Chance to live in a real life Barbie house for $55k a month
An iconic bubble gum pink ‘Barbie House’ – painted in bright pink and purple – is now available for rent at $55,000 a month. Built in 1998, the narrow four-level house is an unmissable pop of colour for drivers exiting down the freeway ramp from Los Angeles onto Highway 1 en route to Malibu.

$12m auction event sees sale of former AFL star home and house with no doors or windows
More than $12 million in property was sold at just one auction event over the weekend: including a home now worth $6.15m, an AFL star’s investment property, and a house with all of its doors and windows completely gone.

“We’ve had a shark”: House with city’s largest home aquarium up for sale
Brisbane’s largest residential aquarium is up for grabs, with its home in Capalaba now up for sale.

The Farmer Wants A Wife stars sell historic Mount Gambier home
Reality TV sweethearts Jo and Rob Hodges have put their Mount Gambier home on the market to fully commit to their new life in Queensland.

‘Buying blind’: Expert slams Aussie property tactic
TV personality and property expert Andrew Winter has slammed an Australian property tactic he says is disadvantaging everyone. Compare the Market found the majority of Aussie home buyers were “buying blind” with new research revealing that almost two thirds of listings do not indicate a price.

‘Bad’: Aussie’s council lawn act ridiculed
A frustrated Aussie has taken matters into his own hands after getting sick of the unsightly park near his home and mowed it himself. Well-kept parks and other community amenities are a huge part of maintaining property values in any given suburb.

World champions: Brisbane named best city on earth
Explosive global rankings have crowned Brisbane the best city in the world to live in – smashing 49 huge competitors including London, Helsinki and Sydney with a surprise per capita knockout.

Can Australia learn from one of the most liveable cities in the world
Europe’s former most liveable city in the world offers a radical alternative to Australia’s view on real estate and homeownership. While Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis, Vienna – named most liveable city in the world several times – has a unique and affordable social housing system that makes it a tenants utopia.

Musk’s $34k Aus home changes everything
It’s the latest in cutting art mobile home tech that could lead plenty of us to leave our conventional abodes behind for ‘van life’. As numerous Aussies embrace the campervan or caravan experience to save on bills and create a more affordable home existence, Elon Musk enters the frame.

Werribee family’s backyard bigger than the MCG for sale at $18m
A Melbourne family is set for a staggering $18m windfall after listing a Werribee home with a backyard bigger than the MCG.

AFL star Christian Salem sells Brighton East home for $2.175m
Premiership Demon Christian Salem is kicking off the 2026 footy season on the hunt for a new home, after settling the sale of his old Brighton East digs in the past few weeks.

23yo Aussie homeowner’s warning over ‘concrete’ backyard nightmare
A young Aussie homeowner has revealed the “concrete” property nightmare that sparked a viral debate. Karissa Hodge and her boyfriend moved from Brisbane and bought their first home in inner Melbourne last year for affordability.

Rebecca Smollen offloads record-breaking Gold Coast mansion
Gold Coast richlister Rebecca Smollen is offloading a prized waterfront estate less than three years after snapping up the Gold Coast property for a record-breaking sum. The sprawling resort-style holding at 59-63 The Corso, Isle of Capri, set a Queensland auction benchmark when it sold for $24m in July 2023.

Council declares war against terrifying backyard invader
An Aussie council has declared all-out war on a common backyard pest that’s breeding at such an alarming rate just two could spawn a staggering 90,000 offspring in just six years. The Mackay council has sounded the alarm over the Indian myna which has taken over backyards, suburbs, parks and nature reserves – killing off native competition.

AUKUS submarine base sparks property rush in Osborne precinct
The future of the nation’s naval defence strategy is fuelling demand for properties in South Australia, property experts say. Century 21 – Beachside & Lakes’ Rosalie Grickage, who sells in Osborne, said interest in properties both in Osborne and in neighbouring North Haven had gone through the roof in the wake of a series of recent announcements regarding submarine building in the area as part of the AUKUS deal.

Urban Developer (Partly Free)

NSW Night-Time Hospitality Struggles Despite Reforms
Another wave of NSW hospitality and dining reforms is being rolled out after 580 venues added outdoor dining under the new regulatory regime. Permanent, additional operational floorspace on footpaths has been taken up by 380 venues since permitting and regulations were first relaxed in 2023, with another 200 temporary licenses offered for special events and activations.

NSW Hunts Partner for Second Sydney Film Studio
A second major film studio is on the way in Sydney as the state seeks proposals to build and operate the facility thanks to $100 million in funding. Expressions of interest opened this week for eight weeks seeking private sector partners to deliver the world-class studio.

View.com.au – Free

Meet the Governess: Former home of NBL star Aron Baynes hits the market for $13 million
It’s a house so striking it has become somewhat of a local legend, stopping passersby in their tracks. Known as the Governess, the home has recently undergone an incredible restoration by luxury developer and construction company Graya.

KIC co-founder Laura Henshaw lists her Brighton home for $9.1 million
KIC co-founder Laura Henshaw and her entrepreneur husband Dalton Henshaw are selling their renovated Brighton house.

Inside the Robert Simeoni-designed Carlton North terrace with a floating bed and glass walls
Tom Tyrrell was born in the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton in the 1940s. His parents brought him up in Brunswick West where he rode bikes around the streets, worshipped footy players and peered over the fence at the new neighbours who came from far away places like Sicily, Crete and Malta.

A house with no bedrooms? First-home buyers said yes
A lively crowd of 40 gathered on site at 7 Madgwick Street, Wynnum, as five registered bidders vied for a classic character home brimming with potential in Brisbane’s east. “Three of the bidders were actively competing,” said Harcourts agent Trish Breen, describing the energy as the opening bid of $750,000 kicked off the contest.

Why The Bachelor stars Matty J and Laura are renting out their $2.19m South Coast beach house
After completing a stylish renovation of their South Coast home, Chante Mer, in Ulladulla, The Bachelor stars Laura Byrne and Matty ‘J’ Johnson are opening the property up as a short-term holiday rental.

TV host Samantha Armytage sells eye-catching South Coast property
Television veteran and journalist Samantha Armytage appears to have sold her South Coast home. The Hyams Beach home was re-listed for sale earlier this year, and on online property platforms is now listed as being “under offer”.

Melbourne: World’s Best City is also it’s biggest property bargain
Melbourne has just landed on a double-win that seems statistically impossible: it’s officially the best city on the planet to live in and it’s currently the cheapest major capital in Australia to buy a house. Forget London. Move over, Manhattan. According to the 2026 Time Out global survey of 24,000 urbanites, Melbourne is the world’s top dog for culture, food and liveability.

‘Iconic’: Knights legend Mal Reilly’s former trophy home in Hamilton South returns to market
A 1920s art deco gem, once owned by former Newcastle Knights coach Mal Reilly, has returned to the market.

Commercial Real Estate – Free

How suburban dining is reshaping the commercial property market
The power of local is no longer a lingering byproduct of the pandemic; it has reshaped the Australian economy. In the past five years, suburban neighbourhoods have become the centre of our daily lives. While 36 per cent of Australians regularly work from home, even more of us avoid the commute to the CBD, preferring to dine, spend and socialise locally.

Real Commercial

Atlassian struggles to fill Sydney skyscraper amid AI-linked job cuts
Aussie software company Atlassian is on a desperate search for tenants for its 40-storey tower in Sydney, as it cuts 1600 jobs and finds its share price a third of what it was this time last year. The skyscraper – built with developers Dexus – has been a key part of Atlassian boss Mike Cannon-Brookes’ vision for a bustling tech precinct in the heart of Sydney.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Victoria warned of CFMEU sabotage in 2023
The Victorian government was warned in 2023 the CFMEU was sabotaging construction on a major project as part of the union’s turf war to seize control of the industry, months before Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed its cost had significantly blown out.

Outgoing Tennis Australia boss to sell beachside home ahead of US move
Outgoing Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley and his wife Alicia are bringing their beachfront home in Melbourne’s south-east to the market with around $11.5 million price hopes as they prepare to move to the US.

Australians turn to resilience travel amid flights turmoil
Australians will bend their holiday plans, but they will not break them, or so the latest booking trends indicate. Not revenge travel – that post-pandemic boom of pent-up bookings – but something more dogged: a wanderlust that persists even when the world seems determined to squash it.

Don’t sell ‘iconic’ Defence land: Howard
Former prime minister John Howard has joined growing opposition to the Albanese government’s planned sale of historic military bases, declaring that iconic sites such as Victoria Barracks should stay in public hands. Defence Minister Richard Marles announced last month that the government would sell 67 military sites, following the release of an independent audit that found they had little strategic value.

Data centres overtake offices in US construction-spending shift
Spending on data centre projects in the US has exploded, surpassing offices for the first time at the end of last year. It’s a trend Matt Kunz saw early on when Meta Platforms built a computing hub outside Columbus, Ohio.

How witches hats paved the way to a $27m beachside mansion
The buyers of the $27 million Sunrise Beach oceanfront owned by Shark Tank investor and Vita Group co-founder Maxine Horne have emerged as London-based Irish-Australian couple Karla and Damien Kelly. The property was the highest Noosa-region sale of last year, and one of the highest Sunshine Coast deals on record.

The Australian

Retirees quietly benefit from interest rate rises as the burden falls on a younger population
There are plenty who will complain about yet another interest rate rise. But that’s unlikely to be heard from someone who’s over the age of 65. In fact, higher cash rates may directly benefit this ever-growing portion of the population.

Who is Antony Catalano, the journalist turned property and media entrepreneur?
A “monster” or the “most intense person” in any boardroom? In Australia’s property and media kingdoms, Antony Catalano was a force to be reckoned with.

The Sydney Morning Herald

End of the black roof? The overhaul coming to Sydney’s heat-trapping suburbs
Developers could soon be required to abandon heat-absorbing materials such as dark rooftops when building new homes under a sweeping overhaul of NSW planning laws aimed at tackling rising temperatures and the urban heat island effect in fast-growing suburbs.

‘Gems that belong to the national estate’: Keating’s attack on Defence land sale
Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched a blistering attack on federal Labor’s plans to sell off historic military sites, as it emerged that NSW’s property developer had made an unsolicited bid for three defence sites, including Sydney’s Victoria Barracks, only to be knocked back.

Sellers of landmark mansion Iona downsize to $18m Sydney terrace
Tim Eustace, star financial adviser at Mercury Private, and Stephen Panui won’t have far to travel to their new home, downsizing from landmark mansion Iona in Darlinghurst to a four-bedroom Potts Point terrace.

The Age

Property tycoon breaks down in tears after being remanded over $20m extortion case
A high-flying Melbourne property mogul has broken down in tears as he learned he would spend the night behind bars, as he attempts to be granted bail while fighting extortion charges. Police allege Paul Fridman, 50, engaged a shadowy overseas operator to threaten two former business partners, Ash Boyd and Nigel Givoni, to pay him more than $20 million.

Penthouse to courthouse: Antony Catalano’s empire unravels
The corporate and property empire of media mogul Antony “the Cat” Catalano started to unravel on Monday, just days after he was charged with assault, false imprisonment and making threats to kill a woman. The former Domain chief executive and boss of dozens of regional newspapers had his landmark $30 million Melbourne penthouse pulled from the market by selling agents citing “sensitivities” over the alleged assault.

Turfed out: Fake grass banned from golf course-turned-housing estate
In what is believed to be a first for a large-scale housing development in Melbourne’s growth corridors, fake grass is set to be banned throughout a 500-home estate being built on a recently retired 18-hole golf course in the city’s south-east.

Bobcat and protesters take to Richmond bike corridor being narrowed for car spaces
Tempers flared in North Richmond on Monday morning as cyclists gathered to protest a controversial move to narrow bike lanes on a main thoroughfare and reintroduce 48 car parking spaces. The project, described by the City of Yarra as a “glow-up”, involves road resurfacing and the relocation of existing bike lane bollards between Hoddle and Church streets.

The ‘starfish’ city: How Melbourne’s shape is pushing young workers out
Former World Bank principal planner Alain Bertaud warns that Melbourne’s green wedges and tight planning controls have turned it into a “starfish” city with growth radiating outwards. Bertaud says this design exacerbated the housing crisis in Melbourne with a lack of affordability that affects younger generations the most.

The Brisbane Times

No walls, floors or doors, can’t be pulled down … Brisbane house frame sells for millions
A Brisbane “house” – a frame with no walls, floorboards or doors, and that can’t even be demolished – has sold under the hammer for $2.3 million. Proving a shabby shell can fetch a couple of million in a booming market, the property – at 28 Parry Street, Bulimba – drew laughs when it popped up on the auction screen at Ray White Collective’s in-room event on Saturday.

WA Today

Burswood Park’s blue tree ‘will return’, Labor vows, as racetrack works surge ahead
A felled blue tree intended to spark community conversations about depression has become the latest flashpoint in the fight over the Cook government’s planned Burswood racetrack, with the state vowing to replace it. The tree was cut down late last week to make way for the $217 million racetrack and 12,000-seat amphitheatre project, now known as Perth Park.

The Daily Telegraph

Architect hired for Moore Park golf course revamp previously slammed premier’s plan
Greater Sydney Parklands has hired an architect who three years ago slammed Premier Chris Minns’ Moore Park golf course reduction plan as lacking vision.

Parramatta real estate business A-Class Estate Agents cops court fine for leaving ‘For Sale’ sign up too long
An Insta-famous real estate agent known for using luxury supercars to advertise homes in western Sydney has been dobbed into his local council for a seemingly everyday act, in a curious case likely to serve as a warning for the industry at large.

The Herald Sun

Real estate experts reveal the eight renovation mistakes that will lose you money
Victorians are back on the tools with home renovation rates rising across the state. But real estate experts warn these eight mistakes risk slashing your property’s value.

Greek Orthodox community fights council tower plan they say will block church access
A controversial inner-city council’s high-rise development plan threatens to cut off thousands of churchgoers from their sacred community hub by removing essential parking spaces.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Vinnies calls for ‘Gold Coast solutions’ as housing crisis deepens ahead of 2026 CEO sleepout
Gold Coast’s housing emergency has reached breaking point with rental vacancies at rock-bottom 1 per cent and families facing homelessness.

The West Australian

Use the Centrelink and super system to boost your age pension and get grandkids into first home
It’s not often that the “system” provides a win-win scenario for two generations of the one family. A nifty way for grandparents to help their grandchildren save a deposit towards their first home can also boost their age pension at the same time.

Generation locked out: Young Australians swap property dreams for shares as house prices soar
Will Brennan has given up on the dream of buying a house where he grew up in Perth’s beachside suburb of Hillarys. Aged 26, he’s watched the city’s runaway house prices nearly double over the past five years and says his government job salary is a million miles off getting him on the property ladder.