The nine hottest properties on the market right now
From bold lines to subtle finishes, we've rounded up the best of the luxury property market in Australia right now.
33 Renwick Street, Glen Iris Vic
Making a bold street statement, this monochromatic two-storey house successfully combines edgy design with contemporary luxury. NTF Architecture skilfully channels light through a deck, balconies and a glamorous north-facing family room. Features such as the curving staircase, exterior screens and plush finishes are timeless. 'It's simply breathtaking – so close to Ferndale Park and trail,' the agent says.
7/22 Etham Avenue, Darling Point NSW
Occupying the entire ground floor of a boutique block in one of the area's most exclusive tree-lined streets, this house-like apartment spans 280 square metres, including a private garden with harbour views. A redesign by Studiojos has introduced marble finishes in the kitchen and bathrooms, wide oak floors, custom cabinetry and Murano light fittings.
56 Mathoura Road, Toorak Vic
This grand Victorian house is like a story waiting to be finished. A pretty facade and heritage details set the scene for comfortable family living. French doors link the lounge and kitchen (with Aga stove) to the garden. Note the back gate to Brookville Gardens. 'A partial or full renovation would really bring this to life,' the agent says.
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Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Whitlam-esque': Zoe McKenzie blasts Labor's divisive tax hike on super accounts, slams Tasmanian opposition for triggering early election
Victorian Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie has lambasted Labor for continuing to advance its plan to hike taxes on superannuation accounts and impose levies on unrealised gains whilst hammering the Tasmanian opposition for sending punters to a winter election. Labor's plan to raise taxes on superannuation accounts over $3 million to 30 per cent and to target unrealised capital gains has sent shockwaves throughout the political and business arena, with financial doyens accusing the government of discarding decades of precedent. The Coalition was previously in talks with the Albanese government to revise certain elements of the legislation, chiefly the concept of taxing unrealised gains, however shadow Treasurer Ted O'Brien officially confirmed on Thursday the LNP would oppose the bill. Yet, former Reserve Bank board members Donald McGauchie and Roger Corbett, in addition to a litany of major Liberal Party donors, have pressed the Coalition to remain at the negotiating table and to secure what it deems crucial exemptions for illiquid assets including farms and small businesses. Ms McKenzie, an outspoken moderate who holds one of the Liberal's last outer-suburban seats, railed against the policy, but did not address if the Coalition would resume talks with Labor to modify the legislation. 'I think this is a terrible piece of policy and a terrible precedent for the future, Labor is effectively saying that they will tax money in your pocket, and you do not yet have this money,' she told Sky News on Saturday. The Member for Flinders echoed criticism from industry magnates in relation to the controversial concept of taxing unrealised gains, stating, 'you may have it in the future, you may not have it in the future, but you will be taxed on it'. 'You may incur a loss in the figure, and you won't get that tax back and that's the principle that we must fight here, because once it's started, it could go anywhere,' indicating that the tax could be extended to a range of other assets including real estate and stocks. 'This is a devilish tax and should be fought by the Coalition parties most stridently, this government is very good at speaking liberal-light in terms of their economic narrative, but it is utterly Whitlam-esque in terms of its impact on the Australian economy'. While the Coalition has vowed to fight the legislation, the bill is expected to pass both houses of parliament unopposed, with the Greens joining with Labor in the Senate despite lobbying for the policy to be levied on those with super accounts over $2 million. 'The point is they're going after money no one yet has, these are paper profits, these are family businesses, these are farms held in super funds that people may well have to liquidate just to pass a putative profit that may not exist when finally realised in years to come," Ms McKenzie said. 'They will need the Greens support in the Senate and as you know, the Greens are pushing to lower that threshold from three million to two million. So, it gives the Australian people a very clear indication of what might happen when Labor and the Greens run the show for the next three years'. The shadow assistant minister then turned her attention to the ongoing political chaos in Tasmania. Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff lost a no-confidence motion in parliament on Thursday, with the speaker casting the deciding vote, resulting in the state heading to it's second election in as little as 14 months. Ms McKenzie savaged Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter for sending the state to a snap winter poll and argued the opposition parties had collectively torpedoed a popularly elected government. 'I think the Tasmanian people would be very disappointed with what's happened this week, basically holding an elected government hostage, so it looks like they will be going back to a mid-winter election. We've all done them and they're horrendous," she said. 'I'm sure the people of Tasmania will not be grateful for being dragged back to the polls so soon after a federal election and indeed just 14 months after a state election." Tasmanians will have to wait until next Tuesday to find out when they will return to the polls, with the parliament scrambling to draft emergency legislation to fund government services of which are due to be tabled on the same day. Independent MPs including Craig Garland have called on the beleaguered Premier to resign, with Mr Rockliff guaranteeing he would not sell off state-owned assets to pay down debt if he won the election, of which served as a key factor in sparking the political row.
Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The 85 times Melbourne home sellers wanted more money than they told you
At least 85 Melbourne home sellers set their reserve price higher than the top of the advertised price range on their properties in 2024 – sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars more, analysis of auctions attended or contacted by this masthead in a year-long auction tracking project shows. The practice is not illegal, but experts say it causes frustration and mistrust among buyers and discredits the real estate industry. Analysis shows it is routine even in a weak housing market and more than two years after the Victorian government launched a $3.8 million taskforce to crack down on underquoting. It can also leave buyers paying for building and pest inspections for homes they never had a chance of buying. Agents in Victoria must list properties for sale with a single price or a quoted price range, which must be based on their estimated selling price for the home or what they know the seller is willing to accept for a property. In an auction, the amount a seller will accept is known as a reserve price. It is common for sellers to decide on a reserve on auction day. If an agent knows the reserve during the sale campaign, they must not advertise the home with a guide lower than that price. The analysis tracked 337 auctions over the course of 2024, often seven to eight a week, chosen because they were likely to be interesting and competitive. Price guide, vendor expectations and sale price were recorded. Although property sale prices are public on settlement, there is no public database of reserve prices, which leaves it to agents to choose whether to disclose this. The biggest gap between a price guide and a reserve at an auction recorded by this masthead was $460,000 for a prestige Toorak sale. In Avondale Heights, a vendor's reserve was $165,000 above the top of the guide and another in Doncaster East was $100,000 over.
The Age
10 hours ago
- The Age
It's about planning ahead: Kate Seddon's switch from advertising to landscape designer
This story is part of the June 7 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories. Garden design is a collegiate affair for Kate Seddon. This she makes clear from the moment we sit down in the kitchen of her Victorian home in Melbourne's south-east – everything she does is a team enterprise, her business name, Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD), aside. 'We work across all projects together, from the start to the finish,' she tells me, over a pot of tea and a plate of delicious home-made biscuits. 'I don't want this to sound like it's just about me.' Over the past two decades, the 50-something designer has made a name for herself creating dazzling private gardens for the well-heeled in Brighton, Caulfield North, Northcote, Hawthorn, Richmond, Fitzroy North, South Yarra and Toorak. There are also projects on the Mornington Peninsula and in Bendigo, Ballarat and Castlemaine. 'I don't want to spread myself too thinly, with a two hours' drive the max,' says the mother-of-two matter-of-factly. 'A sense of place and understanding the local terrain is extremely important.' She recently completed a garden for a new two-storey house at Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula, which falls within the designer's self-imposed geographical boundaries. Although the former cottage was demolished, the owners of the property were mindful that the locals loved the cottage-style garden. Rather than clear the site and start from scratch, Seddon and her team retained a number of the original trees, such as coast banksia and willow myrtle. She also brought in a few 30-year-old olive trees, replanted from another property. 'These established trees come with gnarled trunks and the structure is beautiful,' says Seddon, who likes to use a combination of native and exotic species, selecting the most appropriate plants for the site as much as for the climate. She often clips certain species to add form, allowing a looser arrangement to spill over them. For the Barwon Heads house, she used Elio cobblestones for pathways and a local sandy gravel for the driveway to complement the colours of the house bricks. It took Seddon some time to find her creative pathway, despite her pedigree. After finishing high school, she studied arts at the University of Melbourne, majoring in psychology. This was despite her late father, Chris Seddon, being a prominent architect, having done work for Sir Norman Foster's studio, including the iconic HSBC building in Hong Kong. 'I think architecture just seemed too close,' recalls Seddon, who pursued a career in advertising instead, working with companies such as Schofield Sherbon Baker (Leo Schofield, the cultural buff, was one of its directors). 'Advertising is a young person's field,' she notes. 'It's exciting, but it demands night and weekend work and is not particularly amenable for starting a family.' She bit the bullet and made a career change in 2002. 'I was always attracted to gardens and the broader world of design, given my father's career, and seeing numerous buildings on family holidays.' Seddon enrolled in a graduate diploma in horticulture and design offered by the University of Melbourne, located in Burnley on the banks of the Yarra River. 'From the first moment I arrived, I knew that I had made the right choice,' she says. 'The setting was magical. It's like a small botanic garden, full of birdlife, with a fabulous mid-20th century building. My lecturers were truly passionate and deep thinkers.' Landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw, who was one of many who taught Seddon and now works at the Royal Botanic Gardens, explains why she was dux of her year. 'Kate would always 'gobble up' as much information as she could, continually asking questions and always eager to learn more. I could tell even then that she would be successful. In this profession, you need to be a great listener. But you also need to have an innate ability to design. Most of the great landscape designers I know have little ego, and Kate is certainly not about her, but the work.' Like most new graduates, Seddon began with a small project, which was in the bayside suburb of Brighton – only a driveway and a side path to redesign. She brought in a copse of trees on one side and installed a meandering timber path leading to the front door at the side of the house. The meandering path was later implemented on a much larger scale for the Besen family's TarraWarra Museum, an hour's drive from Melbourne. 'If you develop too many concepts, a design loses its strength and becomes a 'Frankenstein'.' Among her many other projects: the landscaping for a mid-20th-century home in Caulfield North. The owner already had succulents and cacti dotted around the house. The pool's pebbled 'crusty and awkward lip' was removed and the pool retiled. One of the inspired choices was a curvaceous steel fence that enclosed the new crazy-paving, a style popular in the 1950s that matched the age of the home. The garden beds were also replanted and reshaped with kangaroo paw and coastal rosemary, along with native grasses. Closer to the city, she reworked the garden of a Victorian house in South Melbourne, which lacked a midpoint in the vista, with a swimming pool positioned at the very end of the backyard. Hence, her redesign included a new paved area in limestone and an alfresco dining area, with a pergola to screen a neighbouring church. Shutters that were no longer required in the house were fashioned into curved garden bench seats. For Seddon, it's not only understanding what her clients are looking for but also, as importantly, their dislikes. And rather than confuse the client with too many different schemes, she presents just one. 'If you develop too many concepts, a design loses its strength and becomes a 'Frankenstein',' says Seddon, who sees the importance of creating a 'dialogue' between the house and its garden rather than having different 'voices'. 'I think the best gardens happen when the clients also get involved, whether or not they put their fingers in the dirt.' Architect Anne Hindley, director of Hindley & Co, is currently working with Seddon on a property in Brighton. As well as refurbishing the house, the brief included screening the back garden from a palazzo directly behind. 'Kate's suggestion was to demolish the old pool house on the edge of the site, provide some dense planting and build a new pool house that would also accommodate the family's needs,' says Hindley. All gardens mature, of course, evolving with the seasons and as a family moves through their life cycle, but over time they can take on a different nature as properties change hands or owners imprint their own character. One that Seddon revisited three years after designing it introduced a series of garden gnomes across the front flower beds. Each plaster figure carried a ball or a cricket bat, lined up into teams. At another house, a Japanese-style bridge had appeared. But given the owners' children's affection for using it as a backdrop for fairy stories, the bridge was retained and enhanced with new plants around it. Loading Our interview over, Seddon shows me around her own back garden on this overcast afternoon. At the end, there's a separate nook where she stores plants. Some of these are waiting to be planted or perhaps used for a client's garden – she calls this spot her 'laboratory'. There are mounded plants such as Persian shield plants, Pittosporum ' Miss Muffet' and unusual sculptural and succulent plants sprinkled throughout. If there's one piece of advice Seddon can give, it's to plan ahead, as gardens can add considerable value to a home. Unlike building or renovating a house, gardens and landscaping more often than not are left as an afterthought. A fairly simple garden, including structures, can start at $80,000 and go anywhere up to a million dollars, and this needs to be factored in when building a house. What may seem a tidy sum initially can pay big dividends over the longer term.
