Budget Breakdown: To Build This $2.3M Gold Coast Home, a Professional Gambler Hedged His Bets

"It was one of the few times in my life when I was completely heart driven," says Luke MacDonald of the process of building a family home with his wife, Bec Vayonitis, on Australia’s Gold Coast.

That’s no small statement for Luke, a professional gambler. "Generally, you’re trying to be as much of a cyborg as you can in my world, but that didn’t happen all the time on this," he says. "It’s one of the bigger risks I’ve taken."

His gamble began with a vacant lot of land with views that sweep from verdant mountains to the "glitter strip" of the region’s namesake city, where high-rises shimmer along the horizon. "I just loved it," Luke says of the site, adding that he ended up paying more than he intended when he purchased it in 2022. Bec, however, had reservations—with one young child and another on the way, and the pandemic driving building costs sky-high, it seemed like terrible timing. "I was nervous, and I was asking, ‘Can we afford this?’" she says.