Australia’s richest man, billionaire developer Harry Triguboff, may have pulled off one of the slickest property coups of his storied career – the purchase of his own home.

Industry insiders have revealed to The Daily Telegraph that the Meriton boss’ private compound in affluent Vaucluse could now be worth over $250 million following dramatic price growth in the area.

It means the billionaire, who was ranked second behind Gina Rinehart in the latest BRW Rich List published this year, is now sitting on one of the most valuable homes in the country.

For some perspective, Australia’s priciest home sold to date was an amalgamated penthouse in Barangaroo that changed hands for $140 million in 2019.

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The highest price for a freestanding house was the $130 million paid late last year for the former Point Piper residence of Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.

The BRW Rich List 2025 estimated Mr Triguboff’s current net worth was just shy of $30 billion after growing by 11 per cent over the past year. This was one of the biggest rises among the ultra-wealthy on the list.

Mr Triguboff’s Vaucluse house is the result of acquisitions in the area, with the billionaire quietly stitching together waterfront blocks in Vaucluse to create a private compound.

The first of these blocks was purchased in 1983 with $4.1 million, equivalent in today’s money to about $16 million.

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He and late wife Rhonda then snapped up the house next door for $6 million in 1998, records showed.

The landholding is now about 5200 sqm and is the second largest residential block in the area, but critically, is on a prime position on the coveted Vaucluse waterfront.

A prominent real estate agent within the area revealed that waterfront land in Vaucluse typically was now selling for about 50,000 a sqm.

This would suggest Triguboff’s amalgamated block would be worth north of $250 million.

“It’s more likely you’d get that value from subdividing,” the source said, noting that it was unlikely a single buyer would purchase the block in its entirety due to the high value.

It appears the subdivision route has been explored, with a DA lodged to the local Woollahra Council for a four-lot subdivision of the 5200 sqm landholding back in 2020.

Steep value changes in Vaucluse have followed a spate of recent sales at elevated prices.

A mansion on Vaucluse Rd sold for $56 million in June, while another home on Fitzwilliam Rd recently changed hands for $52 million, while a trophy house on Olala Ave sold for $42 million.

All of these properties were on sites substantially smaller than the Triguboff estate.

One of the few comparable estates in the area is the mansion of Menulog founder Leon Kamenev, which sits on another amalgamated site. The 4200 sqm site is estimated to be worth about $200 million.

Mr Triguboff is currently selling an apartment in Gold Coast enclave Main Beach. It was a treasured holiday home for the couple, but failed to secure a buyer even after the price was dropped by $12m.

The sprawling sky home crowning the Silverpoint tower on Main Beach Pde will go under the hammer on October 11, marketed by Ray White Main Beach agent Robbie Graham.

The post Harry Triguboff move boosts billionaire’s fortune to mega new level appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Form Simplicity — a transaction management platform created and owned by Florida Realtors — has launched Sabal Sign, a fully integrated e-signature tool for its Ultimate Edition users nationwide.

Sabal Sign provides unlimited signing sessions, mobile-friendly workflows and full compliance with U.S. electronic signature laws, eliminating the need for third-party services, Florida Realtors said.

“Sabal Sign was built in-house to give members and real estate professionals across the country an e-signature solution they can trust: one that’s reliable, secure and designed expressly for real estate,” said Florida Realtors CEO Margy Grant. “With Sabal Sign integrated directly into Form Simplicity, Ultimate Edition users can manage their entire transaction process in one place with no usage limits.”

Platform features include team permissions, reusable templates, audit tracking, long-term record retention and mobile access for signing and document management.

“Innovative leadership has been a cornerstone of my work at Florida Realtors and Sabal Sign is a testament to what can be achieved when the focus is on forward-thinking, results-oriented decision-making,” said 2025 Florida Realtors President Tim Weisheyer, broker-owner of Dream Builders Realty and DBR Commercial Real Estate Services. “Sabal Sign was created with member input — built by Florida Realtors for Florida’s Realtors and Realtors everywhere — to provide reliable mobile functionality for seamless, secure online signatures.”

Sabal Sign includes features designed specifically for real estate transactions, such as automated role assignments, workflow tracking and compliance with the ESIGN Act and UETA requirements.

“We see Sabal Sign as more than a tool. It’s a reflection of our ongoing commitment to delivering high value to our members,” Weisheyer added. “This approach keeps Realtor costs incredibly affordable and predictable, workflows seamless and compliance automatic for every transaction.”

The e-signature tool is supported by Florida Realtors’ Tech Helpline, which offers phone, chat and email assistance, as well as webinars, guides and live training sessions.

Sabal Sign is now available to all Ultimate Edition subscribers, with enterprise pricing options for brokerages that have 10 or more users.

Although consumers are doing more independent research and home browsing than ever before, data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that 88% of buyers and 90% of sellers work with a real estate agent. How do these Realtor find consumers? Through real estate referrals. However, the way they meet their agents can differ greatly. 

From buying online leads, to farming, to getting referrals from friends and past clients, agents generate leads in a variety of ways. Craig McClelland, the chief strategy officer at HomeStory wonders how many brokers actually know how their agents get leads.

“My question is, how did they get to the real estate agent? Because it’s really important, like how they got that business,” McClelland told HousingWire during an August 2025 recording of RealTrending. 

Brokers, do you know where your agents’ referrals are coming from?

McClelland said his research has found that over 30% of buy-side deals came from leads agents paid for from third-party referral companies. 

“I tell brokerage companies, if you’re going to run a study on your firm, that’s one of the studies you need to run,” he said. “You say, all right, wait a minute. Where did these deals come from? Because we all think, it’s the agent. That the agent originated it — not so much anymore.”

According to the 2025 NAR Member Profile, the typical Realtor earns 20% of their business from past clients. The survey unsurprisingly found that this number increases for more experienced agents. When it comes to referrals not made by clients, typical Realtors gained 32% of those from non-personal referral sources.

Common referral sources include community social media boards/groups (20%), church and school groups (14%), and non-profit work in the community (10%).  A little over a quarter (26%) of typical Realtors said they did not relieve any non-personal referrals in 2024. In total, the typical Realtor reported that just 1% of their business came from non-personal referrals in 2024.

As for third-party lead generation sites, the typical Realtor did not receive any business this way, however, 30% of respondents received at least some business through paid third-party lead sources. This is further reflected in Realtors reporting that they spent $0 on lead generation in 2024. Surprisingly, however, Realtors also reported spending no money on affinity/referral relationship expenses.

When it comes to technology tools for generating leads, NAR’s 2024 Technology Survey showed that popular options for quality leads include CRM platforms (32%), the local MLS (26%), their firm’s website (20%), digital ad campaigns (19%), and email marketing tools like Constant Contact (19%). Just 14% of respondents selected listing syndication sites and portals as the tech tool providing them with the highest number of quality leads. 

How brokers are tracking leads

According to broker-owners interviewed by HousingWire, it is not common for brokers, especially at large firms, to know exactly how many leads come from each source type. 

“I only have 25 agents and I have my finger on the pulse of what they are doing, so I know who is buying leads and roughly how many transactions they get that way,” Chip Stella, the managing broker of Rutledge Properties, said. “We have a good book of business, but it is a small brokerage, so it is more manageable. It would be harder to keep track of if I had a larger firm.”  

McClelland emphasizes the importance for brokers and team leaders to understand exactly where their agents’ leads are coming from. “What if that lead source dries up for an agent?” he notes. For most agents, referrals are far easier to track—largely because they flow from two key places: their sphere of influence and third-party leads from networks or real estate portals such as Zillow, Realtor.com and Homes.com. Knowing this split makes it clear why brokers need visibility into lead pipelines, while agents can more directly measure the health of their referral networks.

“I treat Zillow zip codes like billboards’

Callie Kelley is one such agent who relies heavily on purchasing leads from a third-party, which for her is Zillow. In fact Kelley has built her business off of Zillow leads. 

“My thought was, ‘Where are the most serious buyers in the market?’, and the answer is that they are on Zillow, so that is where the visibility is,” Kelley, the broker-owner of Marathon Realty of Idaho said. “I treat buying Zillow zip codes like buying billboards on Main Street.” 

Kelley likes the fact that when a Zillow lead calls her they are typically ready to go and already know which properties they want to go see. 

“Zillow connects me immediately with buyers who are willing and wanting to set an appointment to look at a property,” she said. 

Kelley says that this convenience is well worth the $25,000 a month she pays Zillow as a Zillow Premier Agent. While Kelley knows that not all agents would agree, Stella can see her rationale.

“Zillow leads are typically ‘ready to go’ in that they have been working independently and have already found a house or houses that they want to see, so it is less effort than if you spend months warming a lead and then spend every weekend with them looking at homes. The effort is worth the cost,” Stella said. 

Conversion is all in great conversations

Although the Zillow leads Kelley receives are warm, she said it still takes a fair amount of work to build trust with a consumer who has never met her before. 

“You have to know how to talk to people in order to convert cold business,” she said. “For me the quickest way to do this is to educate them on the transaction and the market and then do whatever I need to, to remove roadblocks. I have an entire system to make sure they get connected with reliable lenders, and other service providers.” 

No portals for this broker, it’s all sphere

In contrast to Kelley, for Charlie Wills, the broker-owner of The Wills Agency, 96% to 98% of his transactions come from referrals. 

“After seven or so years in the business, I hit this point where I was doing the same amount of business no matter what avenue I advertised with or who I communicated with. I knew that there had to be a better way to grow my business,” Wills said. 

He credits working with a training group called Core for helping him to build his referral business. 

“If people are in your sphere of influence because they are friends with your neighbor or your grandmother, they already are more willing to talk to you than a lead that has never met you before,” he said. “When I was trying to convert those cold leads after a few conversations I’d end up losing that business to an agent they already knew or that a friend recommended.”

Additionally, Wills finds working his sphere of influence a much more enjoyable way for him to generate business. 

“For example, the other day I decided I wanted to go hit a bucket of golf balls for 30 minutes and while I was doing that I ended up setting up two meetings with clients,” Wills said. “I’m generating business while doing things I enjoy.” 

Regardless of how they get business, agents agree that generating business always costs something, whether that be time, emotional energy or actual dollars.

“The cost is always there,” Wills said. “You just have to figure out which way you want to spend it. For me, I’d rather spend my personal time because being around people is what gives me energy. If I spend money on leads and get nothing from it, that wastes my time and it makes me feel icky, but that is me.”

A semi-rural, partly bush property that one day will be enveloped in Geelong’s westward residential expansion has been snapped up at a marathon auction.

The 2.02ha Batesford property sold for $1,711,500 at an auction where Maxwell Collins agent Duncan Skene accepted 131 bids before knocking down the property to the successful bidders.

The property at 10 Ross Rd sold for more than $200,000 above the agent’s $1.4m to $1.5m price expectations adjusted in the week prior to the auction.

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However the guide had been whittled down from a higher $1.9m to $2m guide stated earlier in the campaign.

The property was previously listed for sale in 2018 with a $750,000 price guide as a landbanking opportunity.

Mr Skene said three bidders contested the property, which featured a three-bedroom brick veneer house amid bushland and mature trees.

“We had three bidders there. It pretty much went from $1.3m up to there,” Mr Skene said.

“It’s five acres so close to town and it’s also a growth zone (to activate) at some point in time.

“I think their main motivation is to live there, but with the growth zone at some point in time they could look at that option.”

The location is near Bell Park Sports Club and minutes from the western outskirts of Geelong.

“It’s a really good location. This block had a little bit of bushland out the back, so you were feeling like you were wherever,” Mr Skene said.

“But it was quite a visible area and as so central to everything, the Ring Road, up to Ballarat and down the Surf Coast.”

Part of the property’s attraction was the house was still very liveable, Mr Skene said.

“Even though it was an older, more established home, it had a good garage and shedding as well, which interests some people.”

While the property offers immediate lifestyle benefits, it has an urban growth zoning and is part of the Batesford North precinct within the Western Geelong Growth Area

The semi-rural setting is surrounded by natural bushland, mature trees and abundant birdlife. The three bedroom house has a spacious lounge, original bathroom and a large laundry.

The post Bush home on Geelong’s urban fringe sells in 131-bid auction appeared first on realestate.com.au.

With some of the deepest pockets in the country, it is no wonder Australia’s richest mining moguls have some of the nation’s most expansive property portfolios.

Their real estate investments are scattered across the country, from luxury waterfront estates in Perth to entire streets on the Gold Coast.

Here is a breakdown of the homes of the top dogs in Australia’s mining industry.

Gina Rinehart

Australia’s richest person has some extraordinary estates around the country.

Topping 2025’s Richest 250, Gina Rinehart’s net worth is listed at $46.34b.

Ms Rinehart has a number of known holdings: her family estate in Perth, a riverfront mansion in Brisbane and beachside lots in Noosa. She also owns millions of hectares of farmland.

She inherited her Perth estate from her father Lang Hancock, who bought the original home in the 1950s.

The home sits on the banks of the Swan River in the prestigious tree-lined suburb of Dalkeith in Perth’s west.

Keen to expand her riverfront empire, Ms Rinehart, through various holding companies, accumulated three adjoining homes in a cluster during the 1990s.

She also owns an adjoining empty block, which was listed for sale at $9m in 2015.

Ms Rinehart purchased another waterfront estate on the Brisbane River in 2014 for a total sum of $18.5m.

As well as the historic home in Brisbane’s Hawthorne, the purchase included the neighbouring block, creating a 4545 sqm estate.

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Ms Rinehart also went on a $76m spending spree in 2022, snapping up four homes in the suburb of Sunshine Beach in Noosa.

Even after offloading tracts of land in years gone by, the richlister still reportedly owns almost 1.5m hectares in Queensland, as well as a 400,000ha property in Fitzroy Crossing and 384,451 hectares in the Pilbara in WA.

According to Hancock Prospecting’s website, Rinehart also owns tens-of-thousands of hectares in NSW and several hundred hectares in Victoria.

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Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest

Perth-born iron ore baron Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s net worth is reported to be $15.01b, per The Australian’s Rich 250.

The Fortescue Metals chairman’s net worth took a major hit following his 2023 divorce with ex-wife Nicola.

Mr Forrest is understood to own three properties in Cottesloe — one of Perth’s premium beachside suburbs — all of which are over 100 years old.

A heritage-listed home known as Pine Lodge — built in 1896 — is understood to be the billionaire’s primary residence.

He purchased nearby mansion Tukurua for $16m in 2015, marking the first time in 119 years the home had traded.

Mr Forrest then added a 125-year-old residence Le Fanu House to his Cottesloe collection in 2022.

In 2018 he expanded to the east coast, snapping up a waterfront mansion in Sydney’s Point Piper for over $16m.

The house has four bedrooms and a private jetty, boatshed and harbourside swimming pool.

Mr Forrest has also made several moves into the tourism and hospitality industries.

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He purchased destination stay Cape Lodge in WA’s South West for $10m in 2020.

The purchase included a 22-room hotel on a 40-acre block that features an eight-acre private winery in the state’s most famed wine region, Margaret River.

It was also revealed in 2021 that Mr Forrest was the purchaser of a $42m leasehold on Lizard Island, off the coast of Northern Queensland.

He also reportedly purchased Olivia Newton-John’s former wellness retreat, Gaia, for $30m in 2019.

Like Ms Rinehart, he also owns millions of hectares of farmland — reportedly almost two million — including the 634,000ha Balfour Downs acquired in February 2022.

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Clive Palmer

Before he became a politician, Clive Palmer made his riches as the owner of mining company Mineralogy.

According to The Australian’s Rich 250, Palmer has a net worth of $22.32b, which he has used to acquire a considerable property collection, particularly in his beloved Queensland.

Palmer has invested over $70m in Mermaid Beach’s prized oceanfront, including a $26m vacant Hedges Ave parcel and a $16.95m block, adding to a $12m Hamptons-style mansion secured in 2018.

On the Gold Coast’s Sovereign Islands, his spend totals over $40m for at least nine consecutive blocks, prominently featuring the ‘Titanium House’ purchased for $20m in 2021.

In Brisbane’s Fig Tree Pocket, Palmer has amassed a $17.5m riverfront compound through three adjoining properties, including a $7.5m mansion acquired in 2018 and two subsequent lots bought for $5m each in 2020 and 2021.

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Palmer also made the sentimental purchase of his childhood home in Williamstown, Victoria, for $4.5m in late 2023.

Totalling the sales figures known to the public, Mr Palmer has spent over $150m on property.

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Chris Ellison

Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison is a mining millionaire that used to be multi-billionaire.

His net worth took a gigantic hit in March this year, reportedly dropping from $2.1b to $871m after a plummet in MinRes’ share price.

Mr Ellison purchased what remains WA’s most expensive home for $57.5m back in 2009.

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His massive riverside property in Mosman Park is on a street considered one of the most desirable in Perth’s most affluent suburbs.

Mr Ellison then spent another $11.6m buying another two adjacent houses in Mosman Park, bringing their total land holding to 9159 sqm and their total outlay to just below $70m.

The post Australia’s billionaire mining magnates’ property empires appeared first on realestate.com.au.