Billionaire Adrian Portelli's Stunning Block Exit: Secretly Buys All 5 Houses and Quits the Show

Billionaire entrepreneur Adrian Portelli has sensationally announced he will not return to The Block as a buyer after spending a massive $15.03 million secretly buying all five houses at this weekend’s history-making auction finale.

Nine’s camera crew captured Portelli placing the winning bid on every house except Kristian and Mimi’s. Although he was in the room, theirs was the only auction where he never once raised his bidding paddle.

Instead, House 5 was snapped up by a mystery buyer’s advocate in a check coat for $2.93 million.

Portelli’s bid of $3.5 million – a $1 million knockout raise – on Maddy and Charlotte’s House 1 meant the young Sydney sisters won the show and took home $1.65 million in prize money.

But after the auctions had wrapped and the contestants were celebrating, Portelli revealed to reporters that he had actually been the buyer behind Mimi and Kristian’s sale and had made a clean sweep of all five Block houses.

Enlisting a suburban buyer’s agent to bid on multiple houses throughout the day had been a diversionary tactic to throw other buyers off.

He said he’d “overstayed his welcome” on The Block but wanted to go out with a bang.

“I bought all five houses. I didn’t want anyone to know my game plan,” he said, laughing. “That was my little spin on things to make sure I got the deal done … I didn’t want anyone to know.

“You know, if I bought all the houses, coming up to the fifth time, everyone knew what I was going to do … But yeah, I just had to play the game as well.”

In just three years, Portelli has spent a jaw-dropping $31.68 million on The Block houses.

He said he had not originally been intending to bid on this year’s houses but once he came down and saw the clubhouse and all the amenities, which included a communal tennis court, theatre, spa, barbecue area, pool and games room, he was hooked.

“I think that’s what actually sold me,” Portelli said. “I was like, ‘Well, if you buy all the houses, you own all the amenities as well.’ I don’t like sharing with other people, so I’ll take the whole lot … maybe I’ll just sleep in one each night so I don’t have to make the bed.”

Portelli has only been a familiar face on The Block since the 2022 auctions in Gisborne, when he arrived as a mystery buyer in a yellow Lamborghini, but he quickly made himself known as a massive hitter.

That year he picked up one house for $4.25 million, and last year he bought three Hampton East properties for a total of $12.4 million, including Steph and Gian’s winning property, which still holds the record for the most profitable win in The Block history.

Portelli’s massive knockout bids have infuriated Melbourne philanthropist Danny Wallis in the past few years. Wallis, who has dropped millions on The Block properties himself over many seasons, left the auctions empty-handed and seething in 2023, telling Domain the houses were “junk”.

This weekend he barely got in a bid and told Domain after the auctions that he doesn’t “compete with billionaires”.

“That was the weirdest auctions I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It was Adrian’s pricing.”

But Adrian’s pricing was likely a relief for the contestants and their agents.

In a saggy Victorian property market, auctioning five luxurious holiday homes on the same day was potentially going to be a big ask.

Having a billionaire on hand who has reliably turned up and bought multimillion-dollar houses like he’s been picking up bread rolls on a Saturday morning has been a balm to nervous contestants since Portelli came on the scene.

The question now is: With Portelli out of the picture going into the Daylesford season in 2025, what will this mean for the show? Will this make way for a new generation of The Block bidders, and will the contestants still be able to walk away with a profit?

The Block co-creator and executive producer Julian Cress said yes.

“We’ve enjoyed having Adrian Portelli on the ride for the last three years,” he said. “It’s been great for the contestants … I have nothing but admiration for his incredible strategy of bringing a buyers advocate to put everybody off the scent.

“But obviously our new crop of contestants that will be joining us in Daylesford soon are going to know coming in that they’re not going to be selling to Adrian so they’re going to have to knuckle down and build some beautiful homes for some local families next year.”

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