We drool over glossy centrefolds featuring delectable double-blocks and dream of getting down and dirty in a threesome with a perfectly proportioned kitchen, laundry and bathroom.

When it comes to our homes, we want bigger, better, more.

And when it comes to our ultimate property pin-up boy, that honour undoubtedly goes to Andrew Winter.

The Gold Logie-nominated host of Foxtel’s Selling Houses Australia and Love It Or List It might be English-born, but he’s been our homeboy since moving to the Gold Coast in 2005.

While some pundits were surprised when Winter was named a nominee last year for Australia’s highest TV honour, we property perverts were in ecstasy that our golden boy was being showered with glory.

In fact, a bemused Winter has even been greeted by screaming fans when spotted at the Gold Coast Airport. (Okay, that was actually just me in 2012. True story.)

But it’s fair to say that he’s as obsessed with us as we are with him.

Although he may have bought and sold nine homes since his arrival on our shores, with his current Sanctuary Cove property on the market right now, he has no plans to leave our city.

“This is the best place in the world to live as far as I’m concerned,” he says.

“When we got our visa to move to Australia we were restricted to southeast Queensland — and thank God for that. I have no desire to live in Sydney or Melbourne, it’s just another London with traffic and stress.

“Yes, there are things we can improve here but there is nowhere else I would want to live.”

This might be his dream city, but Winter says there is no such thing as a “forever home’’ for his family.

THE INTERVIEW: CHRIS MAYNARD

THE INTERVIEW: DR AMANDA MCCULLOUGH

THE INTERVIEW: HAYDEN WHITWORTH

THE INTERVIEW: KAREN ANDREWS

After living in the northern precinct of the Coast for more than a decade, he says his family is excited to experience the best of beachside living.

Just don’t expect it to last. It seems Selling Houses Australia is not just a name but his nature.

“We’re looking at a place in Mermaid Beach right now. I want to do a knockdown and rebuild a three-storey home with a rooftop terrace looking out to the ocean.

“Our daughters’ school is centrally located so we’re free to base ourselves almost anywhere. “The time just seems right with the kids growing up to live somewhere close to all the restaurants and really enjoy the beach lifestyle.

“I can’t imagine us staying there forever though. It just doesn’t interest me. My wife knows when I get that look in my eye that the search will begin again. Fortunately she enjoys the change too.”

Winter says he has been obsessed with houses for as long as he can remember, although not his own childhood home. In fact, he says he hated it and couldn’t wait to move.

He became a real estate agent at the age of 17 and immediately felt, well, at home. Ironically, he had zero plans to move away from the industry, even when a television opportunity came knocking.

“I’ve just always loved houses, always,” he says.

“I hated my own though. It was my father’s pride and joy but I couldn’t stand it.

“It was just so boring. A boring house on a boring street and I’d watch all these other people move in and out and just wish it could be me.

“When I was 17 I started working and started moving. I moved around England for years and my biggest break came in London. I worked in Canary Wharf from 1996 to 2004, which was an amazing place to be at that time.

“In 2001 my business partner put my name forward for Selling Houses, the original UK version, without telling me. When she told me they wanted to speak to me she said it was just a property show and they wanted someone to interview. So I went along and had a chat and was quite cocky, surprisingly enough.

“At the end they said ‘OK, we’d really like to use you’. And I said, ‘Well, of course you do’. You know, thinking I was just a talking head for 15 seconds on someone else’s show, what’s the big deal? Then I asked what day they wanted me for filming and they said … no, we want you to host a show.

OTHER NEWS:

Kids as young as 7 at Coast climate change protest

Federal probe already underway at RFG

RFG bled franchisees dry through ‘unjust’ business model

“I said ‘no, I’m not doing that’. I loved my job and had no desire to be on television. Then my colleagues and wife talked me around so I said I’d do it. Then two weeks later they called and said sorry, the channel’s changed their mind, they don’t want you.

“I was relieved in many ways. Then two weeks later, they changed their minds again and said you start next week.

“But still, for seven years I never moved into the TV industry full-time, I was still selling houses … and Selling Houses.”

Even when the Winter family decided to move to Australia, he couldn’t escape.

Despite opening his own real estate business at Hope Island, the UK network still wanted him to commute — to England — to host the show.

“My wife and I always wanted to move to Australia. We’re just not cold weather people. The southeast of England is just not a great place to bring up a young family either.

“We presumed the move would mean the end of the TV show and my business partnership but we were okay with that, we were ready to start afresh.

“I offered to help out with the show any way I could, not thinking they would take me up on that. But they still wanted me as host and I did that for over two years, flying over for three weeks at a time. Half of the series I’m living on the Gold Coast and working in England — that is one commute you don’t want to do.

“My poor wife had three young children at home. One of the last times I returned home we went to the kindy to pick up my youngest daughter, who was about one at the time. The teacher placed her in my arms, as you do, and she just burst into tears. Her father was a stranger to her.

“That’s when I knew I’d done my dash. So it wasn’t the end of the world when the show got canned.

“We decided to knuckle down with our real estate business here, which we’d been slowly building, but two weeks later Foxtel called and asked if I’d do the show in Australia. And here we are.”

So that’s a dream job, a dream location, a series of dream homes … but Winter always has his eye on improvements.

And he has a few recommendations for the Gold Coast.

While the addition of the light rail to our public transportation system earns a solid five stars, he says the city absolutely needs both a cruise ship terminal and a strategy to bring business to the beach.

“The main part of the Broadwater is not a green haven, it’s full of jet skis and powerboats. Leave the rest alone but we do have room for a cruise ship terminal and of course we should bring it here,” he says.

“Sure, maybe those tourists only stay for one night but it gives them a taste and then they come back for more — and they tell their friends.

“The other thing I just don’t understand is why we don’t have more businesses on the beach. We need beach clubs like they have in Europe where you can hire an umbrella and a lounger and there’s a guy who comes along selling drinks. It’s not difficult.

“It should be run by the surf life saving clubs. It’s a great way for them to make extra money and the whole Gold Coast would benefit.”

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GOLD COAST BULLETIN — JUST $1 FOR THE FIRST 28 DAYS

Regardless, Winter says he forecasts continued sunny skies for the city’s real estate industry, despite the gloomy outlook for southern capitals.

He says the Gold Coast property market never reached the crazy highs that Sydney and Melbourne experienced, with many suburbs only just recovering the pre-GFC values of 2008.

He even predicts a boom for the city’s golden rectangle — a location he describes as north to Hope Island, south to Palm Beach, west to the M1 and bordered by the ocean.

“If you can buy in that area now, do it. Whenever the next boom is, in six or eight years, it’s going to be extremely difficult to buy in there,” he says.

Despite his love for our city, Winter says there are a few locations he would refuse to live in.

He won’t name names but describes them as suburbs lacking “that Gold Coast feel’’.

“Close to the Coast you have that beach feel, and then in the Hinterland you have the mountain views and glimpses of the skyline — that to me says ‘Gold Coast’.

“What I don’t like are those areas which could be in any suburb in Australia. They may be nice houses but the neighbourhoods don’t feel like the Gold Coast.

“Having said that, there’s huge value in those areas too. For some families it’s still close enough to all the Coast has to offer and you get a bigger, better house to boot.”

Despite his harsh judgment of the burbs, Winter is a natural charmer and salesman, although he has some stern words for his real estate agent brethren. He is a big believer in the value of agents, but believes current market conditions mean they are overpaid and underworked.

“Paying an agent two to three per cent commission is ludicrous. It was fine when houses were worth $300k or $400k, but now that the average is more $800k to a million, why do they suddenly get a 100 per cent pay rise?

“Sellers are paying too much for a service that hasn’t changed. It slows the market down because people are loath to list their property and lose that money for nothing. Alternatively, agents lose the business to people who’d rather just do it themselves.

“In England the average commission is now one per cent. There was no regulation or legislation, agents just woke up to themselves that if they didn’t drop their price, they’d be the ones to pay.”

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GOLD COAST BULLETIN — JUST $1 FOR THE FIRST 28 DAYS

Yet when it comes to first homebuyers, Winter has some encouraging words.

He says Millennials can have their smashed avo toast and eat it in their own kitchen too.

“People who say they can’t get on the property ladder, they’re not trying hard enough or they’re not looking low enough.

“You’re not going to start with your forever home. Start with a one-bedroom unit for $250k. On the Gold Coast that will earn you $300 per week in rent. It gets you started.

“Go have your fun and eat your avo toast. You don’t have to start with a $600k house.”

Likewise, he says mum and dad investors should rethink their property strategy.

He says whether the government overhauls negative gearing or not, many families would be better upsizing their home than buying a single investment property.

“If you live in an $800k home, don’t necessarily go buy a $300-$400k unit as an investment. You’re paying double rates, double insurance and most likely you’ll be heavily subsidising the mortgage repayment. The capital gains made on that sort of property will never be huge.

“Alternatively, sell your $800k home and buy a house for $1.2 million. By the time you’re ready to downsize, not only is it easier but the capital gains — even if just a few per cent — are remarkable in real terms.”

It seems like golden advice from this Logie nominee.

In fact, if I trade up my home at Mermaid Waters to move to Mermaid Beach I won’t just make money … I’ll be neighbours with Mr Winter.

I guess I just need to find someone to sell my house.

Andrew, consider this a date.