A Serious Tree-Changer’s Prize In A Millionaire’s Playground

An ideal property for serious tree changers seeking a lucrative landing, Pepper Tree Creek estate just outside of Robertson in NSW ticks just about every box for house hunters in the millionaire’s playground of the Southern Highlands.

On more than 30ha of rolling green pastures, with a private lake and plenty of period charm, the expansive property features a converted dairy reinvented as a holiday cottage, fertile paddocks, and close to 2ha of fairytale manicured gardens.

On the market with a price guide of $14.5m to $15.5m, Pepper Tree Creek is listed with Michael Coombs and Sarah Burke of Atlas Southern Highlands. According to title records, the property last changed hands in 2019, before its latest upgrade, including a pool, when it sold for $6.7m.

Dating back to 1862, the original primary residence is a heritage stone cottage that has been sympathetically expanded and restored using stone quarried on site.

The vast floor plan has multiple entertaining zones, including formal areas such as a dining room with skylit cathedral ceilings and a piano room. These stately rooms flow through to the Wolgan Valley room – a closed in veranda with a pizza oven and French doors opening to spacious deck.

There are also everyday casual living areas from the contemporary country kitchen. The culinary space is home to a central island bench, a farmhouse sink, a grand gas cooker, a combined scullery and laundry.

An additional mud room connects the main floor plan to the four-car garage via a large breezeway, offering plenty of hidden storage for gum boots and dog toys.

Up on the first floor, the main retreat houses a separate bedroom with a fireplace, a luxury bath ensuite, a walk-in wardrobe, a sitting area with a study and another fireplace.

Back on the main level, there are three more bedrooms, a whole family bathroom, and a reading room with yet another fireplace.

For entertaining in the great outdoors, surrounded by a picturesque backdrop, there is a spacious covered terrace with a barbecue area, a fire pit, a vine-covered veranda, a mosaic pool, plus a poolside cabana.

Guest accommodation at the Old Dairy consists of a self-contained one-bedroom cottage with a full kitchen, bathroom and full-width veranda.

While the historic homestead and cottage paint a pretty picture, the impressive landscaping sets the estate apart from its neighbours.

Beyond the meticulously sculptured gardens, complete with topiary hedges, terraced sandstone vegetable gardens and a traditional greenhouse, there are 4ha of landscaped parklands. The grounds feature a remnant rainforest, local artists’ sculptures, a 1.2ha spring-fed lake with its own island and wooden bridge, as well as an elaborate chicken hutch affectionately known as Cluckingham Palace.

Although Pepper Tree Creek is connected to town water, the estate’s gardens are irrigated via timer systems tapping into the local spring water. All the paddocks have gravity-fed and spring-fed troughs for sustainable and efficient water management.

Other sustainability elements include substantial solar power infrastructure, offering the possibility for off-grid living.

Pepper Tree Creek is listed via private treaty with a price guide of $14.5 million to $15.5 million through Atlas Southern Highlands agents Michael Coombs and Sarah Burke.

Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.

Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.

Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.

“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.

“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”

Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.

Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.

“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.

Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.

He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.

“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.

“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”

Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.

He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.

McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.

While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.

“People are looking for value for money,” she said.

She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.

“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.

The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.

“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.

He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.

While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.

“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.

Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.

Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.

McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.

Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.

“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.

“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”

As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.

A Serious Tree-Changer’s Prize In A Millionaire’s Playground

A heritage homestead with manicured gardens, private lake and income-earning guest cottage, Pepper Tree Creek near Robertson offers a rare blend of rural grandeur and lifestyle appeal in the Southern Highlands.

Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.