It turns out that The Block finale was somewhat ‘rigged’.

Adrian Portelli has revealed Maddy and Charlotte were in on his plan to help them win The Block this year. Photo: Nine

Adrian Portelli, the billionaire who purchased every single home on Sunday night’s season finale of The Block, has revealed that the winners, Maddy and Charlotte, were in on his plan to help them win. The sisters from House 1 are walking away with $1.65m, including $100k in prize money from Nine, after Adrian bid $3.5m on their house.

Adrian confessed after the auction that he used a buyer’s agent to help him buy all five homes, adding that he wanted to get people off the scent by throwing them a curveball and appearing not to buy every house. Many viewers have accused the show of being ‘rigged’ to ensure Maddy and Charlotte came out on top, and it seems as though Adrian isn’t disagreeing.

Maddy and Charlotte also told Yahoo Lifestyle that they were “clued in” to his plans to buy all five properties and that they knew going last in the auction would be the most advantageous.

Adrian reveals he, Maddy and Charlotte planned for them to win The Block

Speaking with Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren, Adrian revealed he helped choose the auction order and had a plan with the girls to ensure they did, indeed go last in the auctions.

Adrian said he crafted his plan to buy all five with the help of a buyer’s agent so that no one stood in his way of buying the last house, “I’d be in a very vulnerable position coming into the auctions with the other bidders and a lot of them wanted to make a name for themselves… I had no choice.”

“When did you cook up the plan to buy them all?” Lauren asked.

“That was the buyer’s domain,” Adrian shared. “When I first went down there and I saw the actual compound itself with all the amenities. And, you know, I spoke to the producer. And, you know, essentially, if you bought all the houses, the amenities come for free. That was the goal. And then we just hand-selected the auction order, made sure the girls went last, so I could get them the win.”

Adrian has joked that he’s the ‘mayor of Portelli town’ and will be giving away the whole resort to one winner. Photo: Instagram/adrian_portelli
A stunned Lauren responded, “So you did do that. I thought that was your idea! Because why did you want them to win? Because you paid the most money for theirs.”

“It’s the girls. They cared, they came in late. They were the underdogs, they were picked on. They were bullied.”

“You thought they were hard done by right?” newsreader Clint Stanaway asked, to which Adrian responded, “Of course they were. They were and my partner loves the show, and they were her favourites as well.”

Jase jumped in, asking, “So just to clarify, were all The Block contestants in on the plan?”

“No, no,” Adrian said, adding, “It was just the girls. How good is that? The girls that are the most sweetest and innocent, were playing the game the best.”

He added that he “wasn’t expecting” Courtney and Grant’s to go for $3.3m, saying he texted the girls apologising for the fact their house went for more than expected and joked that he might have to “bail” on their property, but they still replied with a “happy” message.

Maddy and Charlotte were in on Adrian’s plan: ‘Pretty clued in’

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle on Monday morning, Maddy said that she got the impression that Adrian was going to buy all five properties, telling us, “All of us got to spend time with him at the races, and he was on site a few times, and so everyone was definitely in the loop about him potentially buying the whole lot.

“It just made the most sense,” she added. “It didn’t make sense for him to just buy one, with the communal area, it made sense that if someone was going to buy multiple that they would buy the whole thing. So yeah, most contestants were pretty clued in that that’s probably what he would do, and he came in and did exactly that.

Maddy added that she knew that being either position one or five in the auction order would be the best opportunity to make money, telling us, “We always knew being a complex that the best position to be in for this kind of auction would have been one and five, because one, you get the entire pool of people wanting it – and especially if there’s multiple people wanting the whole lot, they’d have to fight for your house and most likely it would be a successful auction.”

She added, “And then five, if someone had got the whole lot, they’d also have to fight for your house. And so we knew that that was probably the best place to be that we would most likely have a successful auction. And Adrian obviously came through and bought all the houses, and then ended with a big bang.”

Maddy and Charlotte took themselves out of the fight for the first pick of the auction by asking the other groups if they’d mind them going last. No one seemed to see this as a threat, so they didn’t bat an eyelid and continued the fight to be the first house in the auction order. As a result, Courtney and Grant went first and ended up making $1,300,050 in profit.