Winners of last year's season of The Block, Steph and Gian Ottavio, have come out on top again, after selling their own home for a major profit.
The couple bought the Federation style house in Sydney in 2020 for $1.02 million according to Corelogic and after extensive renovations, it sold for $1.825 million.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house named "Berrima", situated in the southern suburb of Bexley, featured in the couple's audition tape for the popular renovation show.
McGrath Sans Souci agent Trent Tarbey said the couple retained the heritage aspects of the home and added a modern extension.
"They undertook major alternations, stripped the inside but kept the heritage feel," Mr Tarbey said.
The couple purchased the property after two years of house hunting and Steph, a licensed architect, designed the home herself.
"We knew we wanted to find something that had renovation material, that had good bones and we definitely found that in the house," Steph said.
"Some things we look for in a property are orientation, position and topography of land, whether it's on the high side or the low side, the structural integrity and bones of the property, especially because we were doing a modern extension so needed to retain the old."
The original home had two-bedrooms, one bathroom and a sunroom at the rear.
The couple added a Scandinavian, modern extension to the property which was carried out about a year after they purchased the home. Just as Covid-19 lockdowns were looming.
"We were worried about getting trades and what not. We ended up doing a lot of it ourselves," Steph said.
"Construction was the only industry kept alive at that time. We were able to get the crux of the renovation done in a seven month period," Gian said.
"That brought out our love for it. Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday we were at the house, pulling all hours to get it done in quick time."
The couple said they never initially intended on applying for The Block but renovating their own home gave them the confidence to send through their audition video.
"Luckily I took a lot of footage while renovating and collated that with another video and our audition tape was born," Steph said.
It was a difficult decision for the couple to list the home, but they're ready for their next chapter.
"We've lived in the house and it's super sentimental to us. We had the puppy and now it's like the next chapter," Gian said.
"We thought 'let's do another renovation and see if we can make another family home'. It was really sad coming to the decision to sell; we made so many memories. It's our Block house. It was the best decision we made," said Steph.
Mr Tarbey said the tasteful renovation led to the property selling for a premium, originally listed with a guide of $1.7 million.
"It's a good result for the size of it. It's on the smaller size for Bexley, only 347sqm."
It was purchased by a young couple with one child.
"The buyers loved the renovation, it was tastefully done, it's unique for the area. They are coming from the inner west."
Mr Tarbey said the Ottavios were now ready to embark on their next project and were looking around the inner west themselves.
Steph and Gian's renovated Hampton East home sold for $5 million, earning them a record- breaking $1.75 million on last year's season of The Block. Since finishing up the show, the couple have launched online homewares brand Japandi.
