The Block 2024 winners revealed: Adrian Portelli’s epic last goodbye at record-breaking auction day

Sydney sisters Maddy and Charlotte have won The Block — pocketing $1.65m dollars — after rich lister Adrian Portelli bought all five houses at auction, by stealth.

The Block Auction Results

In what Portelli promised will be his final appearance at a Block auction, the eccentric billionaire saw off competition from other buyers to “go out with a bang”, splurging more than $15m to buy up the entire Phillip Island compound.

Not wanting to give his game away until the end, Portelli enlisted a buyers’ advocate to act on his behalf to purchase Mimi and Kristian’s house, so that nobody knew he was on a mission to take home the lot.

“That was my little spin on things to make sure I got the deal done,” he said of his auction day strategy.

“I didn’t want anyone to know. If I bought all the houses coming up to the fifth one, everyone knew what I was going to do.”

Instead, Portelli left winning sisters, Maddy and Charlotte, gobsmacked when he snapped up their property with a single bid of $3.5m — was one million more than his underbidder — in the last sale of the day.

“To be honest I don’t really watch the show but I saw that the girls were having a hard time and getting bullied,” Portelli explained of choosing to anoint the sisters the 2024 winners with his blindsiding bid.

Host Scott Cam said Maddy and Charlotte “probably deserved to win and we are all very happy for them.

“They had a tough block, the girls,” Cam said.

“I said to them, ‘they copped a lot of white noise and they had a bit of a hard time, but they stood true to themselves and kept playing the game, stayed being a nice people, and they ended up winning The Block with $1.65 million, which is absolutely fantastic.”

Maddy and Charlotte become The Block’s youngest winners

For Maddy and Charlotte, the youngest contestants in 20 years of The Block, the massive windfall will be “life changing”.

The pair of amateur property flippers replaced original contestants Jesse and Paige four weeks into filming.

The initially received a frosty reception from the original teams, but post auction said that they had no hard feelings towards anyone on the show, describing the group as “one big dysfunctional family.”

“We are just so grateful, and it’s a very surreal feeling,” Maddy said.

“You can’t anticipate how something like The Block will end, but it is the perfect ending for us. I think there is such a special relationship with sisters, and I’m so proud of both of us and how hard we worked.”

Kylie and Brad ‘have no regrets’, say their relationship is ‘stronger’

Likewise, Kylie and Brad – who fled home to their four children in Cairns before completing the final challenge after Brad was caught flirting with Mimi – had no regrets and would happily return to do another TV renovation.

“I don’t know if anyone would want me back though,” Kylie laughed.

“Everyone would be like: ‘Oh no, not if Kylie is there!’”

Kylie copped heat from the viewers and the judges for her strong personality and style choices. Overwhelmed and over it, she ended up bolting barefoot from the final judging saying her marriage was over and that she would not return for the auction.

Still together, Kylie and Brad defied their critics and were elated to be walking away $650,000 richer.

“We are stronger as a couple and as individuals – although I didn’t need any more strength,” the newly blonde Kylie said.

“This just takes so much pressure off us with the kids and in trying to build our business. It just means we won’t have to be physically working all day, every day.”

Kylie had low expectations for their sale, explaining that series “villains” don’t generally get rewarded as well as others on auction day.

“Because people do shy away and don’t necessarily want to support those people,” she said after happily noting that bidders other than Portelli had also raised their paddles.

“It’s just really nice that there’s still people out there that either appreciated our house or they appreciate us … and that there were so many real feelings when you are under so much pressure.”

For Kylie, whose funereal aesthetic was regularly criticised by judges Shaynna Blaze, Marty Fox and Darren Palmer, the sale was a vindication of her much-maligned styling.

“It was bit like, ‘See guys, we knew, what we were creating!’,” she laughed.

“And it’s nice that there are people out there that can actually appreciate what we were doing, because there are people that don’t like the norm.”

Courtney and Grant come in second place

They may have been pipped at the post by the new kids on The Block, but Courtney and Grant’s auction set the tone for the day, with Portelli picking up what many regarded as the series favourites’ house for a cool $3.3m.

The Sydney couple’s home also attracted interest from some new faces, including Portelli lookalike, Tik Tokker Jacob Najjar and a young mother with her daughter in tow.

“We knew there was rumours of dummy bidders so we put everyone through their paces,” Grant said of approaching Najjar and other wealthy people to attend their auction.

“We knew Jacob came to play and he wanted a house down here … but at the end of the day we can’t forget about the person who bought it and that’s Adrian and we are forever indebted to him.”

Mimi’s big life change as she and Kristian come away happy

For aspiring children’s entertainer Mimi — who came under fire for her part in “flirtgate” — the series has been a steep personal learning curve.

Now sober, Mimi and husband Kristian planned to spend some of their winnings on a holiday with their families.

Acknowledging that the show had tested their relationship and forced her to discover some “confronting” realities about herself, Mimi says the experience was ultimately “worth it.”

And not just because of the money.

“I feel like we’ve done a lot of work on ourselves with therapy and what not,” she explained.

“We’ve done the right steps to get where we are now. So, this [money] is a massive bonus.”

Ricky and Haydn ready to go around again on The Block

Melburnians Ricky and Haydn also “already felt like winners” before they sold their house for $2.7m, with Ricky finding love with The Block make-up artist and Haydn’s wife, Chelsea, giving birth to a much-longed-for daughter and becoming pregnant with their son during production.

“So, it didn’t really matter how much money we walked away with today, we already felt like we’d already won The Block,” Ricky enthused.

He added that he and Haydn hoped to be back as All Stars in the future.

(Source: Realestate.com.au)