Sydney’s flashy home lovers are forking out mega bucks just to keep up with the neighbours – with buyers in some suburbs paying more than double the going rate for homes dripping in designer flair.

Forget boring brick veneers – in pockets of the city, only slick styling, marble benchtops and glossy interiors will do. Research from luxury styling outfit Sovereign Interiors showed buyers in some postcodes are splashing millions more on designer properties.

Interior and architect-designed homes in NSW typically commanded prices $128,000 higher. A non-styled two-bed home averaged $1.7m, while architect or interior designed homes fetched an average $2.37m.

Travis and Jacqui Langdon with their kids Casey (3) and five-month-old Penelope. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The difference was much higher in some areas. In Balgowlah, a two-bedder will cost a cool $1.42m on average – but if it’s been spruced up by an interior designer, the price rockets to a jaw-dropping $2.58m.

Over in north shore suburb Northbridge, three-bedroom homes are averaging $3.63m – unless they’ve had the designer treatment, in which case the average cost is rising to $5.24m.

Two-bedroom homes in Collaroy had an average price of $1.24m in comparison to the architect or interior home average of $2.17m.

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Source: Sovereign Interiors.

Sovereign Interiors’ findings came from analysis of 115,607 listings on realestate.com.au nationally during August 2025.

The research included comparing homes listed as ‘interior designer-designed’ or ‘architect-designed’, categorising these by bedroom count and suburb.

Homeowners in some areas revealed that home styling made a substantial difference to their property sales.

Travis and Jacqui Langdon recently hired a stylist before listing their Allambie Heights home of five years.

“We really wanted to give our home the best possible chance and appeal to the broadest market,” Ms Langdon said, noting they opted for an integrated styling campaign with some of their own pieces.

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The Langdom family’s styled home on Binalong Ave, Allambie Heights.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say we had a particular style in mind, it was more around what we saw on Instagram, how we liked their styling and then matching that to the theme that we were already going for,” Ms Langdon said.

“Kind of that tropical oasis in the back and showcasing that there really is a lot of zones.”

According to Mr Langdon, there is already positive feedback. “A lot of people are loving the furniture and everything,” he said.

The Langdon’s selling agent Tim Cullen of McGrath-Manly said home styling has become critical in the last decade.

“It’s more than worth its weight in gold,” he said. “In our area roughly $10,000 (in styling and design) can equate to fifty to a hundred or even a few hundred thousand dollars in money coming back to the family.”

Sovereign Interiors Interior Stylist Cayley Scrooby

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Mr Cullen said styling led to greater numbers of people coming to open homes and not including it could can be detrimental as it would limit the number of buyers becomimg “emotionally attached” to the property.

“I very rarely ever sell a non-styled property,” he said. “The difference between styled and non-styled is chalk and cheese … without it, it can have the property look quite bland or soulless.”

Travis and Jacqui Langdon utilised a stylist for their Allambie Heights home currently on the market. Picture: Tim Hunter

Sovereign Interiors Interior Stylist Cayley Scrooby said buyers are increasingly drawn to homes that offer a sense of flow, quality and functionality. “People are looking for the full package,” she said.

Ms Scrooby offered these interior tips:

• Use natural light to open up the layout, making the home feel as bright and airy as possible

• Focus on core rooms for renovations such as the kitchen and bathroom

• hoose timeless over trends such as natural stones, timbers and neutral palette

• Make the home as functional and practical as possible

• Effective styling should allow people to picture the home as their own

The post Interior and architect-designed homes outperform their local market appeared first on realestate.com.au.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook. Picture: Supplied

A visit to this Southern Midlands property is like jumping in a Tardis and zooming back in time.

The Old Courthouse at No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook, has just hit the market after many years of use as a private home and a highly successful short-stay accommodation venture.

From the street, The Old Courthouse may look like any stone heritage home, but its history runs deeper than most.

Built in 1884 on the site of the former Jerusalem Probation Station, the Courthouse’s original solitary confinement cells remain intact — a tangible link to the area’s colonial past.

These stone chambers are believed to have once held Martin Cash, one of Van Diemen’s Land’s most notorious bushrangers, who escaped the inescapable Port Arthur penitentiary — twice! — and later earned a reputation as a ‘gentlemen bushranger’.

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No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

Harcourts Signature property representative Mark Brudenell described the property as a special piece of history.

“It is a property that combines Colonial character with modern comfort — and if the walls could talk, the stories they could tell,” he said.

“The owners left no stone unturned in the preservation of this treasured property.

“It’s incredible. It’s a living museum.

“Alongside the original cells there is the Magistrate’s bench, courtroom, artefacts and exhibits; it is a history-lover’s dream.

“The ornate oven is just one example of the owner’s passion for the home and attention to detail. I’ve never seen one of these before. It is a beautiful 400kg cast iron Homestead Cooker that fits perfectly into the property’s historic setting, and it can be fire-driven or electric.”

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

The stone home’s entry is via a veranda, which leads to a large living room, with the cells behind.

In the opposite direction, there is a lounge or bedroom, a dining room, a bathroom with a claw-foot tub, another bedroom and the kitchen that leads to a sun deck.

Central heating and underfloor heating in the bathroom ensure year-round comfort.

The parklike grounds are a lush oasis, spread across a 3908sq m lot.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

No.24 Richmond St, Colebrook.

Mr Brudenell expects the property will be highly sought-after, especially by people with a love of Tasmania’s heritage.

It also offers a central location, he said, just 20 minutes to Oatlands or Richmond, or 35 to Hobart.

The Old Courthouse will be sold by expressions of interest.

The post Inside Colebrook’s Courthouse conversion with original jail cells appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Tenants are among those bearing the brunt of thousands of landlords walking away from Victoria in the past year.

Victorian government policies and taxes have been blamed for a landlord exodus that state data released this week suggests could have wiped out almost 17,000 rental homes.

The latest Homes Victoria Rental Report, covering rental statistics to the end of March this year shows the state recorded a 2.5 per cent reduction in the Residential Tenancy Bonds Authority’s list of active bonds to 654,999 in the past 12 months.

It works out to a staggering 16,794 reduction in bonds, though the report also indicates not all tenancies have been collated — making it likely the reduction of rental properties will not be as severe as currently indicated.

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The report also revealed rents are getting more expensive, rising about $21 a week to $585 in the past year across Melbourne.

In regional Victoria the typical tenant who signed a lease since March 30 will be paying $27 more a week than they were a year ago.

The only glimmer of hope for renters was a marginal improvement in Melbourne’s vacancy rate, which has risen to 2.6 per cent from 2.2 per cent a year ago.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria acting chief executive Jacob Caine said an investor exodus was a product of state government-led regulatory changes, taxation increases and the “generalised disparagement of rental providers”.

REIV acting chief executive Jacob Caine said increasing numbers of people living in the one home was the only reason homelessness was not going “off the charts”.

“The reason it’s not absolutely catastrophic with homelessness off the charts, is that we are seeing household sizes increasing,” Mr Caine said.

“So we are now seeing two couples in a two-bedroom apartment; and where there used to be three people renting a three-bedroom house, now it’s up to six people.”

He added that for many landlords, increasing the rent was the only way to cope with extra costs imposed through government taxes and regulations that have been increased in the past few years.

Mr Caine said while there had been recent signs of rising interstate investor activity in Melbourne this year, “losing any properties out of the ecosystem at a time when the rental population is growing can only be regarded as a disaster”.

Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said rising rental costs were “concerning” at a time when renters had already faced significant increases.

Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said further rent rises were “concerning” given significant prior increases.

“Renters are looking to rental providers and the Victorian Government for some long overdue relief,” Ms Beveridge said.

“Too many are going without essentials like heating, kids’ supplies, or even groceries. The Victorian Government has got to do something to moderate rent increases and inject fairness into the system.”

She added that vacancy rates remained at “unhealthy lows” and there were fewer than 100 homes across Melbourne that a single parent on jobseeker could afford today.

Buyer’s agent and PIPA Victorian director Cate Bakos said interstate investors were one of the only groups looking likely to provide relief for tenants at this point.

Property Investment Professionals of Australia Victorian director Cate Bakos said the decline showed the government needed to review a number of its “ridiculous” policies, and change its negative language around investors.

However, Ms Bakos said she believed it was likely a surge in interstate investors, who now accounted for 70 per cent of her clients, could have slowed the attrition of rental property losses since March.

“A lot of them are saying they understand the land tax, but they see the value proposition outweighs the risk,” she said.

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The post Victorian rental crisis deepens as thousands of homes disappear appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Find out how to help potential homebuyers navigate the market, Bernice Ross writes, while dispelling myths that might be keeping them from moving forward.

Matthew Conley and Paul Passavant wanted to get away from the Bushwick party scene and live in a more serene place. They landed in Inwood, where they enjoy exploring the area’s historic sites and parks. Matthew shares their story as told to Kelly Kreth.

I am from Topeka, Kansas, and my husband Paul Passavant is from Miami. I moved to NYC in 2007 and Paul moved here in 2010. I moved for an internship and Paul moved to NYC for work. We met in 2018 and married in Kansas City in 2018.  Most recently we were living in Bushwick with our dog, Sting Rae.

We rented a two-bedroom apartment with one-and-a-half baths. It was a new build and our rent was $3,800. It had tall ceilings, awesome neighbors, a private balcony, and finished roof deck, making it a great spot for us at the time.

We liked that it was brand new when we moved in. It was on a dead-end street, so it was relatively quiet. It was also near a lot of our friends.

[Editor’s note: “Transitions” features first-person accounts of what it’s like to move from one NYC neighborhood to another. Have a story to share? Drop us an email. We respect all requests for anonymity.]

But we disliked the increasing level of partying in the neighborhood as it became more popular with a younger crowd.

Initially, we were attracted to Bushwick because it was young, diverse, and full of creatives. I am self-employed in sustainability consultancy for large-scale corporate events and Paul works in garment manufacturing for one of Korea’s largest companies.

I work from home and Paul commutes to Times Square, which can take 40 to 45 minutes. Some stand-out places in the nabe were Sushi & Noodle, Amituofo for vegan cuisine, and Mr. Kiwi.

Wanted: A two bedroom because ‘we are big guys’

We decided to move at the beginning of July because we felt we had outgrown Bushwick and needed a quieter neighborhood with more nature.

We used StreetEasy at first where we found our broker, Sabrina Seidner at Corcoran. We told her we needed a two-bedroom rental—we are big guys and need space for our pup. Our maximum budget was $4,200 and we preferred to be close to a park for our dog.  

We saw about 20 spots before doing a trust fall into our new apartment. It was very much worth the wait.

What they think of their new place

Our rental is in a co-op building, so we had to be approved by the board. This was a first for us and we didn’t realize how long the process took, but again, it was worth it in the end.

The 41-unit co-op was built in 1918 and our new place is a convertible three bedroom in a sunny southwest corner unit just two flights up. It has prewar charm and great energy thanks to nine-foot ceilings, a beautifully renovated kitchen and loads of closet space. We also love our formal dining room. Our new rent is $4,000.

Even though we left behind a private outdoor space and floor-to-ceiling windows, we gained so much more.

Impressions of their new neighborhood

Our building is on a tree-lined block in the heart of Inwood near stores, restaurants and transportation. We’re vegan and we like Serrano Salsa for their vegan burritos and visit the neighborhood farmers market on a weekly basis.

We especially love our new proximity to Inwood Park; we saw a wild beaver on a walk recently and we were amazed that we were still in Manhattan.

Food and laundry are much more convenient here. We have a coveted—and rare in a prewar unit—in-unit washer/dryer. I love not having to get dressed to go out to do a load of laundry. What a great perk! We are by the A and 1 subway lines and Paul knocked 20 minutes off his daily commute.

Our friends love the space and historic areas in the neighborhood. It’s a total upgrade! We met a few pup friends first and then their humans.

It was 1,000 percent a great idea to move here and we plan on staying and exploring for a long time to come.