Prestige Property: 22 Leyden Avenue, Portsea VIC

Portsea has long been the coastal playground of choice for Melbourne’s well-heeled. Here, is one of the private peninsula’s finest.

This stately, 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 7-car parking property, of 3047sqm, enjoys an enviable location in the Portsea cul-de-sac overlooking Percy Cerutty oval.

Embracing a Hamptons-inspired, timeless style – every feature and material is of the highest quality, providing the ultimate family compound for multi-generational living.

The main residence sees communal spaces, with hardwood flooring underfoot. Here, a chef’s kitchen fitted with a Paul Bocuse oven with butler’s pantry sits alongside a dining and living room, with open fire.

A private parent’s retreat is downstairs, with gas log fire and cellar and bar adding some adult sophistication to the space.

Additionally, a stone terrace runs the length of the building, serving as a spectacular setting for alfresco dining with integrated BBQ, pizza oven and woodfire.

Across the garden sees the second residence, providing three further bedrooms, two, bathrooms, a living space with gas log fireplace and a large lower floor rumpus. Also, here, basement and security parking for multiple vehicles.

However, it’s the gardens – designed by Robert Boden – that steal the show, playing host to a championship sized mod-grass tennis court, established hedges, stone paving and the aforementioned heated, self-cleaning saltwater pool.

The listing is with Rob Curtain (+61 418 310 870) of Peninsula Sotheby’s International, price guide between $15m-$16m. melbournesothebysrealty.com

Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.

The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.

“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”

Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.

The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”

Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.

The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.

The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.

The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”

The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”

The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”

Prestige Property: 22 Leyden Avenue, Portsea VIC

An architectural masterstroke is one of the peninsula’s finest homes.

The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.