In 2006, Cate Blanchett bought a Prahran home for $745,000 and added solar panels and a water tank; 18 years later, the Melbourne property sold for more than $3 million

Cate Blanchett is known for playing queens, spies and troubled artists on screen, but her latest headline-making role is a lot simpler: smart homeowner. In early 2024, the Oscar-winning actor and her husband, playwright and director Andrew Upton, have sold their three-bedroom Prahran, Melbourne home for more than $3 million, well above the property's price guide of $2.25 million to $2.45 million, according to listing agency Kay & Burton. The couple purchased the same home for $745,000 in 2006. In between, they added solar panels and a water tank, two features that, according to a 2015 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, tend to raise what buyers pay.

A quiet real estate move that worked