Billionaire spends $15m to buy all 5 houses on The Block

Portelli made most of his fortune through his company LMCT+, an online club that offers luxury shopping discounts and giveaways to paying subscribers.

On his first participation on The Block, Portelli appeared as a “phony” buyer, there to up the bids. However, he quickly showed viewers that he was there to buy properties – snatching his first The Block house for $4.25 million.

In 2023, the 35-year-old Australian entrepreneur bought three more houses for a combined price of $12 million.

This included the 2023 season winners’ house which he purchased for a staggering $5 million, giving the flippers $1.75 million in prize money and making The Block history.

For his last participation, Portelli said he wanted to exit the show “with a bang” and set his eyes on buying all the houses built in The Block compound.

This year contestants had to flip villas from a former holiday resort in Cowes on Phillip Island in south-east of Melbourne into luxurious homes.

They also renovated an onsite clubhouse into a chic communal area with saunas and ice baths, a tennis court, an al fresco dining, a trampoline, a games room, as well as a private cinema.

Portelli said that he had not planned on buying any house this year but the amenities this season made him change his mind.

“I think that’s what sold me,” Portelli said during The Block episode.

“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.”

With the help of a buyer agent, Portelli bought all five houses for $15 million, with his highest bid being $3.5 million on Mandy and Charlotte’s house – making them win the season and walk away with $1.55 million in profit sale.

In total, the billionaire spent $31.68 million on The Block houses over the past three years.

Who is Adrian Portelli?

At just 35 years of age, father-of-one Portelli debuted on the Young Rich List in 2023 and is now ranked number six in 2024 with a net worth estimated at $1.295 billion.

Portelli, who is a university dropout, initially worked at his father’s truck repair business before moving to Los Angeles to work in tech start-ups. There he teamed up with his tech-savvy flatmate to develop several apps while working as an Uber driver.

The pair then sold the apps making a huge profit that propelled him to billionaire ranking.

In 2018, Portelli founded the LCMT+ club, a shopping platform offering discounts and exclusive giveaways of luxury vehicles and prestige houses.

He said his vision was to give a chance to everyday Australians to save thousands and help change some lives along the way.

The platform charges a monthly subscription, where Portelli derives most of his annual income – an estimated $50 million per year.

LMCT+ is known to be Australia’s largest and fastest-growing car community, and has over 600 merchants and 300,000 customers nationwide.

On social media, Portelli is recognised for his lavish lifestyle and he made the headlines last year for getting his $3 million McLaren Senna GTR car craned up to his $40 million penthouse on the 57th floor of a Melbourne apartment building.

In July of this year, he went to Italy to pick up a “Lamborghini superyacht” that took two years to build.

Giveaway

Through his platform LMTC+, Portelli runs various online raffles and promotions, where subscribers can pay for the chance to win big prizes, including The Block houses.

Dubbing it “Australia’s biggest giveaway ever”, Portelli has announced that the five houses he just bought on The Block are to win on his website.

Despite calling his mega-win his own “royal flush” and spending $15 million to buy the five properties, Portelli said he wasn’t “much of a fan of Phillip Island”, so he preferred giving the houses away to everyday Australians.

This is not the first time Portelli has given away the houses he bought on The Block.

In 2022, a lucky winner got the first house he bought on the show for $4.25 million.

The following year Portelli raffled the three houses he bought for over $12 million, but winners decided to take the $2.5 million cash prize instead and are still up for grabs.

This year’s giveaway will run until Boxing Day and promises “one lucky winner” will get the five luxurious homes or a “staggering” $8 million cash prize.