Local Love, Global Power with Queensland Sotheby’s International
Friendly faces with global backing. John Caruso meets a couple who mix Coast casual with serious know-how to deliver a combination that works wonders for homeowners.
There’s a familiar moment many of us have when someone new asks, “So what’s the Sunshine Coast really like?” You watch their eyebrows rise as you try to explain that it’s both relaxed and ambitious; a place where people still chat in the supermarket queue but also build businesses that punch well above their weight.
Trying to summarise it is a bit like trying to describe sand, take your eyes off it and it shifts.
For Melissa Schembri and Daniel Rees of Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty, that shifting landscape isn’t a complication. It’s their home turf, and it’s the reason they’ve built such a successful business around helping people navigate the region’s quiet evolution without feeling overwhelmed.
Melissa arrived here in 2003, after years in Brisbane and Sydney. She’d grown up in Mackay and missed the openness of a smaller coastal community.
“I loved Sydney and Brisbane because they were big cities, but they were too big,” she says. “When I got to the Sunshine Coast, I had access to everything I needed, but without that fight for space. It felt like home straight away.”
What kept her was something many of us understand instinctively, the scale of the Coast encourages connection without sacrificing opportunity.
“It’s a big enough pool that you can do amazing things, but not so big that you lost that sense of community,” she says.
Daniel’s story runs parallel.
Growing up on the south side of Brisbane, his family leaned toward the Gold Coast, but he never gravitated towards what it offered.
“I’m not into the razzle-dazzle,” he laughs. “I love the small community
feel of the Sunshine Coast. We need to grow, of course, but we don’t want to lose what makes us unique.”
He references a recent event where Sunshine Coast Council CEO John Baker spoke about balancing progress with character, an idea both he and Melissa return to often.
It’s this lived understanding that shapes how they guide their clients.
The couple, who married in Malta in Spring 2025, have moved through the region in a way that mirrors the journeys of the people they now help.
“I’ve lived in Noosa, Pelican Waters, Maroochydore, Cotton Tree, and we’ve owned in Montville,” Melissa says.
“We’ve lived in apartments, high-density, waterfronts, acreage. That experience lets us explain to people what each lifestyle option feels like. You can live on the Sunshine Coast and reinvent your life as many times as you like.”
“If someone’s moving from the hinterland to the beach, or the opposite, we’ve done it,” Daniel adds. “We can explain it in a way that goes beyond features and square metres. We’ve lived the experience.”
It’s one of the reasons they’re often able to articulate things buyers didn’t know they needed to hear – what the mornings are like in a certain street,
how the breeze moves across a particular pocket, or whether a location suits someone who’s up at dawn for a walk or someone who prefers a quieter, retreat-like lifestyle versus someone seeking a location with more energy.
Melissa says this understanding comes not only from their own moves, but also from watching countless clients navigate the same transitions.
“We’ve seen so many people shift from the beach to the hinterland and back again,” she says. “It’s cyclical.
“People evolve, their needs evolve, and the Coast lets you change without uprooting your life.”
Underneath all this local insight sits the international reach of the Sotheby’s brand. With 1,100 offices and more than 27,000 agents around the world, the Sotheby’s network draws attention from buyers around the world and closer to home.
“Some of these properties deserve to be seen on a world stage,” Melissa says. “Sotheby’s gets a million organic website views a month. International buyers know the brand, even if they’ve never heard of the websites that only operate domestically. We cast the net wide.”
Daniel notes that overseas buyers often recognise the Sotheby’s name long before they’re familiar with Australian real estate portals.
“I was talking to a couple from South Africa the other day,” he says. “They immediately mentioned a Sotheby’s office in Johannesburg – the brand means something to them. That recognition opens doors for our sellers.”
This reach delivers results.
In the last 12 months alone, Melissa and Daniel have listed $120 million worth of property, guided several high-end sales to national and international audiences, and had listings featured in publications like Forbes, SMH, The Age, and The New York Times.
“We get a lot of press that other brands can’t access, giving our sellers real visibility, not just prestige for prestige’s sake, but meaningful reach,” Daniel says.
Still, it’s the human side of the work that they come back to. One of their current high-profile listings, Wild Haven, the $11 million hinterland estate owned by former Domino’s CEO Nick Knight, illustrates how much buyers value the story behind a property.
“People often ask, ‘Why are they selling?’ They see a beautiful place and can’t imagine wanting to leave,” Daniel explains. “The answer is usually simple. Life moves and evolves!”
“Nick’s family used it for years. His interests have changed, he’s focusing on flying now, literally, and he wants to be close to the airport,” adds Melissa.
The pair have discovered that most sellers are in the same boat. They’re often ready for the next experience.
Their own business reflects that sense of momentum. In just two years they’ve grown from one staff member to five.
They’ve supported community events, donated to local schools, and helped raise thousands for organisations including
MS Queensland, Dementia Australia, and Katie Rose Cottage Hospice and have begun the process of selecting a single charity to support more directly in 2026.
“We want to go deeper with our community involvement,” Daniel says. “Not just donations here and there, something ongoing and meaningful.”
For all the statistics, growth charts and global affiliations, Melissa brings it back to something simple: “Our goal is just to help more people sell their homes at any level,” she says. “It’s not about a price tag. We help sellers put a bit of love back into a property so the next owner can see its value. It’s not taking from a home, it’s giving back before you move on.”
It’s a sentiment that feels very coastal.
We grow, we change, we try new things, and every so often we shift our anchor point, sometimes five minutes down the road, sometimes from Brisbane or Sydney or halfway across the world.
And if you ask Melissa and Daniel, that’s the beauty of this place, it gives you room to evolve without ever needing to leave.
