The Block’s 2003 contestants Gavin Atkins and Warren Sonin, long known as Gav and Waz, have quietly sold their Sunshine Coast, Queensland, hinterland retreat for $10m.
The couple, who set up their design firm Designer Boys after competing in the first series of the Channel 9 show, bought the Cooroy Mountain estate, Riverdale, for $2.7m in late 2016. The 4ha estate adjoins lush rainforest.
They had help from Noosa building designer Zest Design on the revised floorplan with a few tweaks, including a master retreat now featuring a study, walk-in wardrobe, and his-and-his ensuites.
ALL the latest from the 2023 Block finale
RELATED: Lambo Guy hands Block winners’ staggering $1.75m jackpot
The off-market sale to the Wells family set a Cooroy Mountain record topping the $9.5m paid in 2021 for the Piralilly estate on 44ha. There are only about 70 homes at Cooroy Mountain, in the Noosa Shire about 25km from the coast.
Gav and Waz were part of the first The Block series, in which the teams renovated a four-unit complex on Bondi’s Roscoe St. They were the first same-sex couple to appear on Australian reality TV, often renovating in their underwear.
Crazy John, the phone retailer seeking to piggyback the high-rating success of the series, paid $670,000 after the makeover. Its price went backwards two years later when Crazy John sold for $560,500 in 2005.
MORE: The Block losers unload on auctioneer
Sonin had been a sales manager and Atkins worked in public relations at Landcare Australia, with the duo doing their days jobs during the renovation.
The then Potts Point-based couple enjoyed huge success with their previous hinterland retreat at Federal, outside Byron Bay.
They sold the 23ha estate for $3m in 2013, having bought it in 2007 for $610,000.
The restored and expanded 120-year-old farmhouse hit the market with $14m hopes early last year without success, then again in April this year with dramatically revised $5.5m guidance through TRG and Ray White.
According to PropTrack, just three house have been sold in Cooroy Mountain in the past 12 months.
MORE: Roosters NRL bad boy’s $4m home for sale
Ian Thorpe makes big splash with new landmark $3m pad
Prize home owner’s incredible win ends shock run of bad luck