Block stars Sonny and Alicia Aplin list renovated home

3 days ago 14

The Block stars Sonny and Alicia Aplin have listed their renovated Bonogin home after pouring their $120,000 prize money into the property.

The Block stars Sonny and Alicia Aplin poured their $120,000 reality TV prize money into their own Gold Coast renovation before listing the finished family home for sale.

Sonny and Alicia bought the Bonogin property for $1.24m four years ago, before using their winnings and lessons learned on the show to overhaul the dated home at 5 Koda Crt.

Now listed with Ray White Robina, the five-bedroom house has renovated bathrooms, updated interiors, a pool, valley views, dual-living potential and a wellness space with a sauna, ice bath and gym equipment.

Alicia said the prize money had been a “blessing”, but had gone straight back into the property.

“We wouldn’t have been able to renovate this house without that money, because honestly, that’s where all of it has gone,” she said.

“Our end goal is that we’ve got our eye on a little off-market property at the moment, and we’d love to dive deep into that and do a really extensive renovation on the next home.”

For Sonny, the non-negotiable was making the home work for family life.

“The non-negotiable for us was making the place easy to live in, easy to use, easy to clean and functional for a family,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure we had a couple of living spaces and plenty of room for the kids to do their thing, and for us to do ours.”

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The pool area before Sonny and Alicia Aplin renovated the Gold Coast home.

The pool area at 5 Koda Crt after the couple’s renovation.

Sonny said they wanted buyers to feel the same thing people felt walking through their Block house.

“That they’re at home,” he said.

“They just need to bring their suitcase and that’s it.”

The renovated kitchen inside the Bonogin home now listed for sale.

The kitchen has been updated as part of the couple’s real-life renovation.

Alicia said their own home was more restrained than their television build, with the couple using a neutral base and bringing colour in through furniture.

“This house is definitely different to what we did on The Block,” she said.

“It’s a lot more muted in the colour palette. We’ve kept it very neutral, but we’ve furnished with colour instead.”

One of the living areas inside Sonny and Alicia Aplin’s renovated family home.

The outdoor entertaining area overlooks the pool and surrounding greenery.

Preparing the home for sale had also changed after their time on the show.

“In the last house we sold, we would never have thought this much about how we wanted it to look when people walked through the door, or how we wanted them to feel,” Alicia said.

“Before, I probably would have just bought a new doona cover.

“But now I’ve purposely bought furniture that could stay with the house if the new owner wanted it.”

New-look floorboards help create a more open feel throughout the home.

The couple used a neutral base and brought colour into the home through furniture and styling.

Alicia said The Block had also made them more confident in their own design choices, including colour-drenching their ensuite and wallpapering parts of the home.

“On The Block, you go all in because it’s a design show,” she said.

“But here, because we’re selling, you obviously tone that back a bit. We haven’t lost our personality though.”

Already set up for dual living when the couple bought it, the house gives the children their own lounge room, dining room and kitchen upstairs.

Alicia said they considered removing the upstairs kitchen to create another bedroom, but decided future buyers should have the choice.

“It’s more expensive to put a kitchen in than it is to take it out and make it a bedroom,” she said.

One of the bathrooms before the home was renovated.

The bathroom after Sonny and Alicia Aplin’s renovation.

Ray White Robina agent Kahlee Townsend said the renovation had added “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands” of dollars in value.

Ms Townsend said the home’s scale, pool, views, dual-living potential and wellness space made it a rare offering.

“If you are looking at it as dual living, whether that is for a wellness retreat, guest accommodation or a work-from-home space, it lends itself to so many different uses without taking away from the family home,” she said.

“You absolutely could not rebuild this property for what you could potentially buy it for.”