The Block home renovated by Courtney and Grant at Cowes on Phillip Island has sold for $1.125m, almost $2.2m below the $3.3m Adrian Portelli paid in 2024.
One of The Block’s Phillip Island homes has sold for $1.125m, almost $2.2m below Adrian Portelli’s 2024 auction price.
While the official sale price remains undisclosed, an industry source revealed Courtney McInnes and Grant Freeman’s House 2 fetched the far more affordable sum the second time it sold.
The result is $2.175m, almost 66 per cent, below the $3.3m Portelli paid during The Block’s extraordinary Phillip Island finale.
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The four-bedroom Cowes property was marked sold on September 10 after most recently being advertised for $1.295m.
But the enormous gap does not represent a $2.175m loss for Portelli.
The billionaire bought all five Phillip Island homes for a combined $15.03m before using the resort through his LMCT+ rewards business.
The four-bedroom Cowes home was marked sold after most recently being advertised for $1.295m.
The owner of House 2 secured it through one of the giveaways before putting the fully furnished home back on the market in February with $1.7m-$1.85m price hopes.
Despite the huge drop from Portelli’s television bid, the latest sale still sits well above the wider Cowes market.
REA Group data shows Cowes’ $700,000 median house price is down 3 per cent over the past year, while buyer demand has fallen 5 per cent.
The median four-bedroom house price is $767,500, based on 55 sales, meaning House 2’s reported result is about $357,500, or 47 per cent, above the local benchmark.
The reported $1.125m sale price is about 66 per cent below Adrian Portelli’s headline-grabbing $3.3m Block bid.
M R Advocacy founder and lead buyers agent Madeleine Roberts said the result supported her earlier warning that the Phillip Island Block homes did not stack up as conventional investments.
She said Portelli’s bidding had occurred in a highly competitive television environment that bore little resemblance to an ordinary property sale.
“He was being competitive, and it was a little bit of an ego thing, and it was quite theatrical,” Ms Roberts said.
“I think that just is a true reflection of how much people buy into the hype with these production homes.”
M R Advocacy founder and lead buyers agent Madeleine Roberts said the $1.125m sale showed the huge gap between its 2024 sale and the home’s true market value.
Courtney McInnes and Grant Freeman won six room reveals while transforming House 2 during The Block’s 2024 season. Picture: Channel 9.
Ms Roberts said Cowes values had moved since the show finished filming there, but nowhere near enough to account for the $2.175m difference.
“The market may have changed a little bit since the show aired, but not enough to support that large of a drop,” she said.
“So 100 per cent, whatever it’s gone for at the moment is actual true market value.”
She said she still would not buy House 2 for an investment client without first seeing numbers that justified its running costs.
“Honestly, no, not from an investing point of view, because still, I wouldn’t think that the numbers would make sense,” Ms Roberts said.
The home had been one of the standout properties of The Block’s 2024 season.
The property includes four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a private pool and extensive outdoor entertaining on the former Phillip Island resort site.
Courtney and Grant stamped the home with their self-described “Moditerranean” style and won six room reveals during the competition.
The couple then drew first position in the auction order with a $1.95m reserve.
Bidding raced beyond $3m before Portelli secured the home for $3.3m, handing Courtney and Grant a $1.35m profit.
They ultimately finished second after Maddy and Charlotte Harry’s House 1 sold to Portelli for $3.5m.
When House 2 returned to market in February, Stockdale & Leggo Phillip Island agent Camille Morris said it remained virtually untouched after its television transformation.
Courtney and Grant gave House 2 their distinctive “Moditerranean” look during The Block’s 2024 Phillip Island season.
“It looks amazing. Even some of the cushions still had tags on them,” Ms Morris said at the time.
“I don’t even know if anyone’s even cooked in the oven.”
Ms Morris said the furniture, artwork, appliances and homewares were included, leaving the buyer with much of the home viewers saw on television.
House 2 returned to market earlier this year with $1.7m-$1.85m price hopes before its campaign was repositioned.
The result comes as another of Portelli’s Phillip Island purchases prepares for its own test of the conventional market.
Maddy and Charlotte’s winning House 1 returned to market last week with a $1.4m-$1.5m guide, almost two years after Portelli paid $3.5m for it.
The sisters inherited the unfinished home after original contestants Jesse Maguire and Paige Beechey quit the show four weeks in, before going on to win the season.
Courtney and Grant finished second on The Block after their Cowes home became one of the season’s most highly praised properties. Pictures: Channel 9
Unlike House 2’s resale campaign, which put its Block identity front and centre, House 1 is being pitched primarily as a resort-style “generational estate”.
Its guide is already $2m-$2.1m below Portelli’s televised purchase price, leaving the winning home as the next test of what The Block’s Phillip Island properties can command away from the TV-show hype.
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