Homes for hire: The homeowners making money from film and TV shoots

Demand is soaring for prestige properties to be the real stars of film, TV and photoshoots as wonderful settings for filming and photography, luxury brand events, and workshops and conferences.

And their owners are making big bucks hiring out their high-end homes for as little as half a day for a short stills shoot to earning around $160,000 for a three-month TV series contract.

“We started 12 years ago but recently we’ve seen a big increase in activity with the high-end homes,” says Michelle McCormac, the director of Australian locations agency Pure Locations.

“We’ve been incredibly busy for the past few years. These days, you need to take so many photos of products because people buy so much online, and every brand now needs to have a presence. There’s just so much demand for top homes, people can earn themselves an annual income from it.”

For those who decide to hire out their prestige properties, it can prove a bonanza. A small photoshoot earned one of McCormac’s clients $2000, a corporate event $8000 for the day, and that television series, shot over three months, $160,000.

A newer entrant into the market is A Perfect Space, founded by chief executive Kate Mitchell. Her company acts as an Airbnb for locations, with home owners sharing their properties on the platform so producers can hand-pick the locations for their shoots.

“We’ve now got about 400 homes in Australia on the platform, 300 in the pipeline, about 60 in LA where we’ve launched and 35 in Bali.

“We have a lot of prestige, high-end homes as well as some beautiful properties that don’t want to appear on the platform and be marketed directly.”

One of her owners is Louise Robinson, whose house in Melbourne’s St Kilda East has had three bookings over the past six months and earned around $5000, with past business from Getty Images, Origin Energy, Kmart and McCain for their TV commercials and stills.

“I’d certainly encourage other owners to give it a go too,” says Robinson. “When we have a booking, I take the dog and go off for the day. I love my house but it’s not a temple; I’m not very precious about things.

“I do it purely for the money. I work part-time and it gives you extra for the holiday fund.”

The secret of Robinson’s success is that her house is a formal Victorian home at the front, has a modern extension at the back and looks quite industrial in the middle – offering a variety of backdrops. Other kinds of homes in demand are those with personality, good gardens and pools, are family-friendly and have easy access and natural light.

Villa Biscaya, a 1929 harbourside home in Sydney’s Rose Bay for instance, was hugely popular for shoots before it was sold in January this year with an asking price of $12.5 million.

“A lot of stylists love that kind of design. It has magnificent gardens and being painted that biscaya pink colour made it very interesting,” says Jaime Upton of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty, who sold the property.

So, beautiful harbourside houses in Sydney, grand mansions in Melbourne, lovely Queenslanders, Top End cattle stations, homes by the ocean with crashing waves as the backdrop and city penthouses with stunning views all make great settings for shows and functions.

“People like to monetise their asset and now it’s much easier to leverage their property,” says Mitchell.

“The other key driver besides financial is the kudos they may gain from showcasing their homes, while we hide the owners’ identities,” she says.