There’s no place like home for our Andrew
His life has been all about selling houses ... and Selling Houses, so why does Andrew Winter think the Gold Coast is the best address on Earth — and what’s in store for us?
Bulletin AS a city obsessed with real estate, property is our porn. We drool over glossy centrefolds featuring delectable double-blocks and dream of getting down and dirty in a threesome with a perfectly proportioned kitchen, laundry and bathroom. When it comes to our homes, we want bigger, better, more.
And when it comes to our ultimate property pinup boy, that honour undoubtedly goes to Andrew Winter.
The Gold Logie-nominated host of Foxtel’s Selling Houses Australia and Love It Or List It might be Englishborn, but he’s been our homeboy since moving to the Gold Coast in 2005. While some pundits were surprised when Winter was named a nominee last year for Australia’s highest TV honour, we property perverts were in ecstasy that our golden boy was being showered with glory.
In fact, a bemused Winter has even been greeted by screaming fans when spotted at the Gold Coast Airport. (OK, that was actually just me in 2012. True story.)
But it’s fair to say that he’s as obsessed with us as we are with him.
Although he may have bought and sold nine homes since his arrival on our shores, with his current Sanctuary Cove property on the market right now, he has no plans to leave our city.
“This is the best place in the world to live as far as I’m concerned,” he says.
“When we got our visa to move to Australia we were restricted to southeast Queensland – and thank God for that. I have no desire to live in Sydney or Melbourne, it’s just another London with traffic and stress.
“Yes, there are things we can improve here but there is nowhere else I would want to live.”
This might be his dream city, but Winter says there is no such thing as a “forever home’’ for his family.
After living in the northern precinct of the Coast for more than a decade, he says his family is excited to experience the best of beachside
living.
Just don’t expect it to last. It seems Selling Houses Australia is not just a name but his nature.
“We’re looking at a place in Mermaid Beach right now. I want to do a knockdown and rebuild a three-storey home with a rooftop terrace looking out to the ocean.
“Our daughters’ school is centrally located so we’re free to base ourselves almost anywhere. The time just seems right with the kids growing up to live somewhere close to all the restaurants and really enjoy the beach lifestyle.
“I can’t imagine us staying there forever though. It just doesn’t interest me. My wife knows when I get that look in my eye that the search will begin again. Fortunately she enjoys the change too.”
Winter says he has been obsessed with houses for as long as he can remember, although not his own childhood home. In fact, he says he hated it and couldn’t wait to move.
He became a real estate agent at the age of 17 and immediately felt, well, at home. Ironically, he had zero plans to move away from the industry, even when a television opportunity came knocking.
“I’ve just always loved houses, always,” he says.
“I hated my own though. It was my father’s pride and joy but I couldn’t stand it.
“It was just so boring. A boring house on a boring street and I’d watch all these other people move in and out and just wish it could be me.
“When I was 17 I started working and started moving. I moved around England for years and my biggest break came in London. I worked in Canary Wharf from 1996 to 2004, which was an amazing place to be at that time.
“In 2001 my business partner put my name forward for Selling Houses, the original UK version, without telling me. When she told me they wanted to speak to me she said it was just a property show and they wanted someone to interview. So I went along and had a chat and was quite cocky, surprisingly enough.
“At the end they said ‘OK, we’d really like to use you’. And I said, ‘Well, of course you do’. You know, thinking I was just a talking head for 15 seconds on someone else’s show, what’s the big deal? Then I asked what day they wanted me for filming and they said … no, we want you to host a show.
“I said ‘no, I’m not doing that’. I loved my job and had no desire to be on television. Then my colleagues and wife talked me around so I said I’d do it. Two weeks later they called and said ‘sorry, the channel’s changed their mind, they don’t want you’.
“I was relieved in many ways. Then two weeks later, they changed their minds again and said ‘you start next week’.
“But still, for seven years I never moved into the TV industry full-time, I was still selling houses … and Selling Houses.”
Even when the Winter family decided to move to Australia, he couldn’t escape.
Despite opening his own real estate business at Hope Island, the UK network still wanted him to commute – to England – to host the show.
“My wife and I always wanted to move to Australia. We’re just not cold weather people. The southeast of England is just not a great place to bring up a young family either,” he said.
“I offered to help out with the show any way I could, not thinking they would take me up on that. But they still wanted me as host and I did that for over two years, flying over for three weeks at a time. Half of the series I’m living on the Coast and working in England – that’s one commute you don’t want to do.
“My poor wife had three young children at home. One of the last times I returned home we went to the kindy to pick up my youngest daughter, who was about one at the time. The teacher placed her in my arms, as you do, and she just burst into tears. Her father was a stranger to her.
“That’s when I knew I’d done my dash. So it wasn’t the end of the world when the show got canned.
“We decided to knuckle down with our real estate business here, which we’d been slowly building, but two weeks later Foxtel called and asked if I’d do the show in Australia. And here we are.”
So that’s a dream job, a dream location, a series of dream homes … but Winter always has his eye on improvements. And he has a few recommendations for the Gold Coast.