Images: Domain / Getty Images
In what feels like an endless string of chic property sales, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan has just listed ‘Argyle Grange’. Located in the green hills of Robertson in country NSW, it’s set on 4.4 acres.
Sheep can be seen grazing through the mist, but this is certainly not a home for a down-and-dirty farm life. It’s a home intentionally designed for a high-end buyer who wants what this property expert is putting down – after all, it’s far from Collette Dinnigan’s first real-estate rodeo.
Even as far back as 1995, when she was still very much entrenched in the Sydney fashion scene, the designer doubled her money on her first home which she bought for $315,000 as a 29-year-old, reports Domain. The two-bedroom cottage on a lane behind the Clock Hotel in Sydney’s Surry Hills sold for $620,000 to someone who recognised it as the designer’s after it featured in an interiors magazine.
Since then, she’s featured in many more interiors articles with properties like her Bowral estate and invested in and sold more than $50 million worth of real estate.
Collette Dinnigan’s early influences
Her latest Southern Highlands home is not too far-flung from the designer’s roots. She was born in South Africa then lived in the rolling hills of New Zealand from the age of eight, before moving to Sydney at 19 to pursue a career in fashion. She stepped back from the fashion world in 2013 and has discovered a knack for design and a developed an interior style that suits elevated country living.
Yet Collette’s taste in home design still harks back to her fashion days. “Fashion influences my decorating style,” she told Vogue Living. “Proportion, colour and attention to detail are key. I also give each property its own thematic thread, as I would a fashion collection, so it brings out its personality. This is done using a strong edit.”
The designer mixes old and modern, always with a bohemian spirit. “It’s the explorer, the adventurer in me, and every time I move, I add and edit,” she further explained.
Her Southern Highlands property
Collette Dinnigan’s Southern Highlands property was given a stylish makeover after the interior design aficionado and her sales agent husband, Bradley Cocks, bought it in 2022 for $2.85 million.
The listing went up in May 2026, with a $5.5 million price guide – almost doubling the price in four years, with an increase of $2.65 million. “Renovated extensively” with the design by Collette herself, it’s marketed as suitable for a “country retreat, creative escape or equestrian lifestyle”.
A newly constructed shed joins the main home, which has three bedrooms, with bay windows and wraparound verandahs. The home’s interiors have been updated with a modern country kitchen. Fresh white cabinetry complements rustic timber elements, while rooms are decorated with understated fabric accents and statement lighting.
Outside, recycled brick paths lead to established English-style gardens, along with a chicken coop, orchard and vegetable gardens. The property is not completely remote, with the cafes and stores of Robertson village close by.
Past properties: Collette Dinnigan & Bradley Cocks
The couple are quite the property moguls, with other homes following a similar path of redesign to hitting the market with major mark-up. One of their success stories includes a prestigious Watsons Bay masonic temple they bought in 2015 for $6.25 million and sold 18 months later for $9 million.
Among others that followed are ‘Springfield’ homestead in the Southern Highlands – a seven-bedroom country estate overlooking the slopes of Mount Gibraltar. They bought it for $4.5 million in 2016 and sold it for $7.25 million just 18 months later.
Later, the savvy pair flipped a luxury beach house at North Rosedale Beach on the NSW coast. It was bought in 2018 for $950k and sold in 2023 for $2.9 million. With this track record of roughly doubling the price of homes, it’s safe to say whatever interiors they touch turn to profit – and no doubt ‘Argyle Grange’ will be the same.
Collette Dinnigan’s interior design tips
So, what is Collette Dinnigan’s secret to a makeover that improves a home’s value so significantly? She shared her interior styling advice with British Vogue, suggesting you start by establishing a key colour for each room, then adding texture with furniture, textiles, art, ceramics and lighting.
Another decorating tip she shares is to keep the location in mind. “For example, Puglia to me is all about olive trees and dry-stone walls. For our 500-year-old farmhouse there, I carefully restored the stone – but added a modern touch by putting in a stainless-steel kitchen and using handmade Grottaglie tiles for the splashback,” she told the publication.
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