TEE OFF IN LUXURY ON THE PINES’ MOST EXCLUSIVE ADDRESS
This luxury Sanctuary Cove estate offers prime fairway frontage beside Australia’s only Arnold Palmer-designed golf course.
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Golf connoisseurs with a love of architecture can hit a hole in one with this palatial estate in the exclusive Masters Enclave gated community.
The sprawling 1798sq m Sanctuary Cove property was recognised as one of Queensland’s Top 50 Amazing Homes in 2023 by The Courier Mail and sits alongside the country’s only Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, The Pines.
Recognised as one of Australia’s best and most challenging courses, The Pines is a 101ha 18-hole course within an established pine forest. With eight man-made lakes, it is home to an abundance of native wildlife, including rare birds and plenty of kangaroos.
“When I think of great golf in Australia, I think of The Pines at Sanctuary Cove, a true test of the game,” pro-golfer Adam Scott has said of the famous green.
Listed with Matt Gates of Ray White Sanctuary Cove, the modern mansion is on the market via private treaty sale with a price guide of $8.495 million. The property last sold in 2022 for $6.6 million according to title records.
Prior to that exchange, the designer home had been the glamorous weekender of retired telco executive and one-time local Bentley and Rolls-Royce dealer, David Baird, and his wife, Marion. They purchased the home, which fronts the 14th and 15th fairways, for $6.5 million in 2018.
A single-level residence, the four-bedroom house has a palatial 900sq m of living space and benefits from an extraordinary 80m of uninterrupted fairway frontage, giving the owners a prime position to enjoy the member-only course.
Meticulously curated to appeal to a design-savvy buyer, the house has multiple living and entertaining zones which all open up to the great outdoors and the unrivalled view of the green.
There are six defined alfresco spaces throughout the property, including an outdoor bar and spa terrace, a courtyard pavilion with fire pit, a beverage hub and bespoke seating. A vast pool and its adjoining spa also overlook the lush green of the fairway.
Inside, there are ample places to retreat to, such as the relaxed sunken lounge, as well as the media room for movie nights, and an executive-style office with integrated cabinetry.
Built for the great entertainer, the sleek contemporary kitchen is complemented by rich timber finishes, black subway tiles, a long eat-at island bench, plus a full butler’s pantry and state-of-the-art appliances.
Each of the bedrooms has an ensuite, including a separate guest suite, and the spacious main is a private pavilion retreat in itself with a five-star hotel-inspired bathroom featuring a freestanding tub and a grand dressing room.
The Masters Enclave estate has cutting-edge home automation, a four-car garage with a workshop and an essential golf buggy bay.
In addition to a world-renowned golf course right on the doorstep, residents within the secure community also have easy access to a marina, waterside cafes and designer boutiques.
The estate has the convenience of 24-hour security, land and water patrols, medical emergency response, and alarm monitoring.
Matt Gates of Ray White Sanctuary Cove is listing the Masters Enclave residence with a price guide of $8.495 million.
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The US housing market remains under pressure as high mortgage rates continue to weigh on affordability and demand. Industry leaders say 2026 has been one of the toughest years for home sales, with slower price growth, weaker mortgage activity, and fewer buyers entering the market. However, experts say reduced competition and more price cuts could create opportunities for well-prepared buyers.
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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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