After retiring from television, Astbury worked as a real estate agent at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Queensland between 1995 and 2000. For the next decade he ran a property development company in Thailand. During the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami while Astbury was holidaying in Phuket, he reported on the devastation for the political website "Crikey". Returning to the Gold Coast in 2010, Astbury worked with the Ray White Real Estate agency in Broadbeach. On 9 November 2017, a colleague found him dead in his home after he did not turn up to work and could not be contacted.