OWN A MELBOURNE MASTERPIECE BY BYRON’S RECORD-BREAKING ARCHITECTS
From a record-breaking beach house in Byron to a modern Melbourne dream home, the creative team at Workman Design is turning heads.
2 min
Their exquisite attention to contemporary detail recently earned Melbourne-based architects, Workroom Design, ultimate bragging rights after a home they crafted broke a new price benchmark in Byron Bay.
Now there is a chance for Melbourne design lovers to buy their very own Workroom home in Hawthorn – at half the cost of the Byron pad.
That prestige beach pile just sold for $33.5 million, snapped up by Chemist Warehouse billionaire couple Damien Gance and Sasha Robertson. However, the newly listed Workman creation at 73 Kooyongkoot Rd in Hawthorn is on the market with Kay & Burton Boroondara via an expressions of interest campaign guide of $13 million to $14 million.
The Mediterranean-inspired five-bedroom, six-bathroom residence might be a world away from famed Belongil Beach but the acclaimed architects still met the brief with the same level of expert detail and finishes.
Surrounded by lush landscaping by Ben Scott, the Hawthorn home is a modern marvel with a striking sculptural façade, a thoughtful layout and carefully considered touches from chevron oak herringbone flooring and Italian porcelain tiling, to stucco Veneziano walls, marble surfaces and fluted glass detailing.
Beyond a covered front patio and formal foyer, the large lounge room has a striking black marble fireplace, and across the hall, there is a home office with integrated cabinetry.
Down a glass gallery and north-facing central garden, the rest of the ground-floor layout reveals the everyday family zone. A sleek kitchen hosts a sculptural natural stone island bench, full suite of Wolf appliances, and built-in Sub-Zero refrigeration. A hidden butler’s pantry with all the trimmings has a door to the side garden, offering easy access for caterers.
The adjoining dining and family rooms feature expanses of north-facing windows for loads of natural light, and a covered outdoor room is the perfect spot for all-weather barbecues and alfresco entertaining beside the heated pool.
Further options for gatherings with family and friends include a lower level gold-class home cinema and a custom-designed showcase wine cellar with sculptural curved detailing.
In addition to a guest bedroom on the lower ground floor, the upper accommodation level has four more bedrooms and a multipurpose living room.
Each bedroom has an ensuite and built-in storage, however the palatial main bedroom wing is an oasis with a vast dressing room, a private terrace and a grand bathroom with circular freestanding bath, steam room and custom-designed vanities.
The long list of added extras elevates the house to a dream home, thanks to inclusions such as a lift to all three levels, a six-car garage, hydronic heating, ducted air-conditioning and vacuuming, an alarm, and CCTV surveillance.
Located in the coveted Scotch Hill enclave of Hawthorn, the tree-lined street is characterised by its stately residences and enviable position close to Melbourne’s leading private schools including Scotch College, as well as parklands, transport, and popular shopping precincts such as Camberwell Junction, Glenferrie Road, and Auburn Village.
Expressions of interest for 73 Kooyongkoot Rd, Hawthorn close 3 April at 5pm Scott Patterson, Ross Savas and Jamie Mi of Kay & Burton Boroondara.
The 1860s Darlinghurst mansion Stoneleigh could become Sydney’s most expensive home ever sold under the hammer when it goes to auction. Clint Ballard is giving buyers a $28 million guide for the heritage-listed mansion on Darley Street, opposite Iona, the former home of Hollywood royalty Baz Luhrmann. Stoneleigh is being offered for sale for the …
Set on one of the city’s last absolute riverfront sites, The Riversdale by Mosaic combines irreplaceable waterfront ownership with one of Brisbane’s most significant residential opportunities.
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.
2 min
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.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
When the Writers Festival was called off and the skies refused to clear, one weekend away turned into a rare lesson in slowing down, ice baths included.
