From $140,000-a-week lakeside retreats to deluxe vineyards and cliff-top mansions: where celebrities and the rich are renting this summer

A holiday house at Portsea? Oh please, it’s so passe.

Try an entire vineyard on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula – at $4500 a night, the bottles of plonk are the cheapest part.

Or, from $140,000 a week, a lake house in New Zealand’s Queenstown could be just the ticket.

But if that’s not to taste, what about a Spanish-style manor in Sydney’s Vaucluse, cantilevered over a cliff to exploit harbour vistas, for $1800 a night?

From hosting foreign prime ministers to sports stars and Hollywood actors, the private luxury rental market will be just as busy as six-star hotels over summer.

Some of Australia’s wealthiest home owners are listing their mansions, country estates and penthouses for lease – to those can afford the perk.

It’s a growing but very private industry that has preceded the mainstream dominance of Airbnb.

Unique Estates holiday manager Sarah Ogilvie said the agency – which handles top-end sales plus residential and holiday rentals – had a growing list of A-grade movie stars, TV personalities and musicians on its books.

But some renters do come from the hoi polloi, treating themselves to an upmarket break.

“Our clientele is extremely diverse, from families, couples eloping for a weekend getaway, executives running small corporate retreats and those celebrating special birthdays, family reunions and anniversaries,” she said.

“We offer recommendations and assistance in booking private chefs, in-house massages and treatments, luxury car hire, grocery delivery and more.”

Ms Ogilvie said Byron Bay, in New South Wales, was a hotspot.

“But the coastline running right the way down to the Northern Beaches is exceptional,” she added.

“More and more people coming to the Byron Bay region are discovering the beauty that lies within a 30-minute drive of the colourful town.”

Alexandra Ormerod, co-founder and managing director of high-end rental real estate agency Luxico, says she receives a booking once a fortnight from a celebrity or a VIP.

Mum’s the word on their identities.

Luxico has regularly posted callouts to its listing clients for upmarket homes that can be rented to visiting A-listers, from Australian Open tennis players in Melbourne and pop stars in Sydney.

“We offer discerning travellers, celebrities and families who want something better than serviced apartments, the opportunity to stay in Australia’s best homes with full 24-hour concierge that they would expect from a hotel,” Ms Omerod said.

“The managing agent or the production company will usually give us a call, and we have good relationships with those people. Often these are very last minute, so that is why we have to do a callout.

“We find if they are travelling with family, they will come to us rather than go to a hotel.”

With the possibility of hosting a grand slam ace or a chart-topping singer, the benchmark for a property to qualify as a probate rental is high.

“We knock back four out five properties that we see, and the reasons are not due to any one particular thing,” Ms Ormerod said.

“We don’t have a cookie-cutter look that we need, but we look for properties that have a distinctcharacter; they have to have a level of design flair that sets them apart from the ordinary.”

As the weather warms up, so too does demand for holiday rentals, costing thousands a week, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and lower north shore.

However, Melbourne’s market is driven by its burgeoning sporting calender.

“It is influenced by the tennis, Grand Prix, the AFL grand final and Spring Racing Carnival, so travellers usually want to be near the sporting grounds,” Ms Ormerod said, “Whereas the demand to leisure travellers usually relates to them wanting to be close to someone else who lives in Melbourne.”

Most of the landlords on their books own numerous homes in their favourite destinations, Ms Oglivie said.

“They use the property themselves frequently each year and our services help to offset the costs.

“These owners are predominantly Australians living in all parts of the world.”