How this dream home’s biggest liability became its greatest asset
The Southern Highlands site was beset with conflicting constraints. Balancing them against each other resulted in a triumphant study in peace and harmony
4 min
From the Spring issue of Kanebridge Quarterly. Order your copy here.
Architect Richard Cole is accustomed to working with challenging sites but this property in the Southern Highlands of NSW was a stretch, even for him.
With experience designing for everything from exposed oceanfront locations to remote properties in regional areas, his team is familiar with a variety of constraints, including managing extreme weather conditions and meeting requirements for bushfire prevention strategies.
And at first glance, the block in the small locality of Wildes Meadow near the picturesque Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands of NSW seemed quite straightforward. A greenfield site, it offered a flat piece of land with a backdrop of mature eucalypts and a tranquil setting, which was in keeping with the owners’ plans to use the home as a retirement option, as well as a destination for family and friends. The area is also home to some of the most exclusive, architect-designed residences in the state.
On closer inspection, however, the complexities of the site revealed themselves.
“It had a lot of challenges,” Cole says. “To start with, it had power transmission lines across it and any dwelling had to keep clear of them. It was also in a high biodiversity zone. It’s potential koala habitat but we had to get an ecological study and a specific impact statement on the Fitzroy Falls Spiny Crayfish.”
As the name would suggest, the Fitzroy Falls Spiny Crayfish is only found in Wildes Meadow Creek area, and maintaining the surrounding habitat is considered critical to its survival. To add further complexity, the site is in a bushfire-prone area, restricting how and where a house could be built.
“The problem with being in a bushfire zone as well as an ecological zone is with bushfire, you create an ‘asset protection zone’, which means clearing trees and flora, which is in direct opposition to the habitat you are trying to protect,” he says.
If that wasn’t difficult enough, the site is also an overland flow area, making it vulnerable to flooding whenever there was substantial rainfall. The constraints lead to some clear design decisions.
“We were looking at building quite close to the forest area but we decided on the middle of the paddock area, well away from the trees to maintain the habitat,” Cole says.
In the event of a bushfire, it’s a requirement that water is available on site, without the need for firefighters to cross the fire zone to access it. In addition to the 110,000L rainwater tank for domestic use, Cole provided a dedicated water tank for the purpose, as well as provisions for a dam.
To deal with the potential for flooding, he turned what could have been a liability into an asset. Substantial drainage channels direct water to a spillway located adjacent to the house to manage excess water — and creating a house with water views. At just 300mm deep, it is technically a water feature.
“The house is cantilevered a little over the water but the water is really built up to the house,” says Cole. “So you can control the maximum level of the dam and there’s no danger it will flood.”
The single level home has been designed as two pavilions, with the main bedroom, including ensuite, a study and living area all in one building overlooking the water, and further accommodation for guests in the second building, connected by an outdoor walkway.
Cole says the concept for separating the two pavilions was to provide the owners with the option of closing down the second building when they were the only ones on site without losing any of the amenity they enjoyed.
While the house takes in views of rolling hills to the south west, Cole designed the house around a north east-facing courtyard to permit as much natural light as possible to penetrate living spaces.
An angled roofline to the northern side of the house also allows for highlight windows, openable above the kitchen, further enhancing access to natural light and air flow.
Given it is positioned away from the surrounding tree canopy that would shade the house, it made sense for the roof to be covered in photovoltaic cells to provide solar-powered electricity. The house has further embraced passive solar design principles with a concrete slab for thermal mass, double glazing for the windows and cooling breezes captured as they move across the water in summer. Any additional heating and cooling requirements are managed by reverse cycle air conditioning.
Indoors, spaces celebrate the materials Cole is known for, with a Spotted Gum-lined ceiling and timber veneers in the kitchen, offset against blonde bricks from Bowral Bricks, a concrete slab floor and Endicott crazy paving from Eco Outdoor. The choice of natural finishes allows the building to feel at home in its environment without compromising on comfort — or style.
The house was constructed during COVID with the work undertaken by the owner’s brother based on detailed documentation provided by Cole’s team.
The outcome is a generous residence for extended family on a site that is both safe and inviting. Best of all, it’s a haven of respite — for humans and wildlife alike.
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
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