Savvy property moves Australian Idol contestants

They belted out ballads and captured the nation’s heart on Australian Idol.

But years after the final note, where are the franchise’s biggest stars settling down?

From controversial ‘fortresses’ to savvy Sydney investments, here’s a look at the property moves of the show’s most enduring contestants.

Guy Sebastian

Australian Idol’s first winner Guy Sebastian, has built a successful music career as well as an impressive property portfolio.

The Battle Scars singer and his wife Jules forked out $3.3 million on a Maroubra mansion on Sydney’s eastern beaches in 2013.

The couple set about making their “dream home” on the site with building costs said to be around $7 million.

Sebastian and wife Jules purchased the property in 2013 for $3.1 million and spent close to three years constructing.

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Nicknamed ‘Fort Guy’ by locals, the massive estate has been at the centre of a battle with his neighbour in the area for several years.

Various claims have allegedly passed between singer Sebastian and his immediate neighbour Phillip Hanslow since 2017, of which some have ended up in court.

His home sits on 1400 sqm, while Hanslow has a 325 sqm block.

“We didn’t grow up in houses like this,” Sebastian has said of the home.

“Every day, we (he and wife Jules) look at each other and say, ‘Why is this us?’

“But there is beauty in feeling like an alien in your own space. You never fail to appreciate it.”

It seems his neighbour, doesn’t share the same appreciation.

“He’s (Sebastian) paranoid about security and has a large security camera outside so anywhere I go outside on the property, he can see,” Mr Hanslow has claimed.

“We’re going to have to sell. We’re too old for this.”

Sebastian said of the dispute, which had been going for more than five years, he wished he had never fallen out with his neighbour.

“It is something that is out of my hands,” Sebastian told The Daily Telegraph. “I have had to put up with a lot of things that have been said … but I can’t keep fighting all of that anymore.”

Before buying in Maroubra, the musician and his wife had been living in another beachside neighbourhood in Sydney’s east.

They sold that four-bedroom Clovelly residence under the hammer in 2013 for $2.22 million.

But Maroubra isn’t the only coastal spot the Sebastians have to retreat to.

Prior to offloading their Clovelly home, the high-profile pair bought a waterfront holiday house in Gerroa on the NSW South Coast.

That four-bedroom house, which overlooks Seven Mile Beach, cost the couple $1.015 million before they also renovated it.

In 2021, Sebastian sold his Toogoom, Hervey Bay ­investment for $735,000.

The Voice judge paid $675,000 in 2007 for the ­coastal Queensland property, which had been a $390 a week rental.

Shannon Noll

Season One runner-up Shannon Noll has made quite a few property moves and faced financial difficulties since his Idol fame.

Back in 2018, the singer opened up on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Here about the hardships his family encountered after his father’s death.

Chatting with his campmate Fiona O’Loughlin, the music star revealed he and his brothers struggled to keep their Condobolin, NSW farm running after their father’s passing.

“We tried to farm our way out of it in the next two years. We failed because of the drought so we got enough rain to put the crop in and then it didn’t rain at all after that,” Noll said.

“That cost $40 or 50 grand at a time for fuel, seed, spray. So we went further into debt.”

At a family crisis meeting, the Nolls made the sad decision to sell their farm.

“Big business, though, they don’t mind jumping on an opportunity I suppose,” he said.

“We just had enough to buy mum’s house. I went on Idol. A few of the creditors were left over, they chased mum really hard for the shortfall.”

By this time, Noll had appeared on Australian Idol and launched a hugely successful music career – his first two albums went eight-times platinum between them.

“I wrote a cash cheque out for $209,000 for a tractor company. I thought I was doing the right thing – I’d never run a business before,” he said.

“So I paid a lot of these debts out. Consequently all the big money I made after the show, I paid bills with it.

“I didn’t blow it on yachts and all that sort of stuff. Just paid [bills].”

Before he was famous, Noll purchased his first home in Condobolin in 2002 for $150,000.

The property was listed for sale in 2012 with price hopes of $230,000. It was later reduced to $220,000.

In 2005, Noll and his wife Rochelle bought a five-bedroom house in the Sutherland Shire suburb of Lilli Pilli for $1,285,000. The American homestead-style home was sold in 2012 for $1.26 million.

The family currently reside on a farm near Casino in the Northern Rivers area of NSW. They set up home on a 100 acre property.

Over the years, things haven’t been rosy for the musician.

In 2004, the What About Me hit maker was arrested for drunk driving. He was again arrested in 2017 for assaulting a bouncer at an Adelaide strip club.

The musician pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 2018 and was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Cosima De Vito

Cosima De Vito was the fan favourite of Australian Idol Season One until she withdrew at the final three stage after she was diagnosed with throat nodules.

Since then, the singer achieved a No. 1 ARIA chart hit in 2005 with When the War is Over.

In 2023, De Vito and her husband, Five Dock Meat Market owner, Gus De Romanis, bought a unit at Wentworth Point for $800,000.

The couple, who have a seven-year-old daughter Amelia, have secured a two-bedroom apartment with two courtyards and a double garage in the Waterfront Estate.

Over the years, the musician has faced some struggles. After leaving Australian Idol, she found it difficult to negotiate a record deal.

The move prompted De Vito to fund her own debut album, Cosima, with the financial help of her family.

She flew to Los Angeles and worked with Oscar-nominated songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote 10 of the 11 tracks on her album.

Cosima hit number 2 on the ARIA charts and was quickly certified gold, but fell off the Top 50 soon after.

De Vito went on to produce two more albums, starred in the musical Hair, and performed at award and sporting shows and galas.

Paulini

Paulini Curuenavuli rose to fame in 2003 on the first season of Australian Idol and placed fourth in the competition.

Since the series, the singer has four albums with her debut studio album One Determined Heart hitting number one on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum.

In 2017, Paulini made her musical theatre debut in the Australian production of The Bodyguard, playing Rachel Marron, the role famously portrayed by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film.

The music star is currently based in Sydney. She had been living with her sister Litia in a shared apartment in Matraville, New South Wales in 2014.

Rob Mills

Season One contestant Rob Mills carved out a successful career in music and musical theatre after Australian Idol.

The triple-threat singer, dancer and actor has released a top 40 album and starred in several musicals like Wicked, Grease, Ghost and Hairspray.

The entertainer played teacher Finn Kelly on Neighbours from 2017 until 2022.

The media personality was last reported to live a Sydney inner-city apartment with fiance Georgie Tunny.

Back in 2016, Mills revealed to Yahoo Be that he suffered depression and suicidal thoughts within days Australian Idol wrapping.

“I freaked out,” he admitted. “I contemplated suicide only once in my life, and that was the week after I finished Idol.”

‘Millsy’ said he did not handle being thrust into the spotlight — and claimed “it was the worst.”

Anthony Callea

Season two runner-up Anthony Callea has turned his music career into rock-solid real estate investments.

In 2013, the singer and his actor husband Tim Campbell listed their Sanctuary Lakes, Victoria property with price hopes of $675,000 to $695,000. They purchased the four-bedroom house in 2008 for $557,500.

The couple snapped up a Melbourne apartment in the Yarra Point complex for $1,165,000.

The three-bedroom high-rise pad on the 20th floor was purchased at a discount. It was initially sold by developer Mirvac in 2012 for $1.25 million.

Ricki-Lee Coulter

The season two fan favourite, Ricki-Lee Coulter, has proven to be a savvy real estate player, recently transitioning from a beachside home to a city investment.

The singer and her manager husband Richard Harrison have become Sydney landlords.

The couple have spent $3.505m on a newly renovated three-bedroom, two-bathroom terrace in Redfern, but will not be moving in just yet.

As landlords, they have sought $1650-a-week tenants, which reflects a modest 2.45 per cent rental yield. Coulter, who turned 40 this month on Hamilton Island, holds a 99 per cent stake.

The couple are committed to renting a luxury three-bedroom apartment in The Residence, overlooking Hyde Park, on the Sydney CBD fringe at about $4000 a week after selling their Avalon home for $2.845m in 2023.

The couple had been dividing their time between the Northern Beaches and the city for more than a year before the 2023 sale.

The Residence is the same apartment complex where fellow singer Delta Goodrem owns a two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment bought for $4.8m in 2018.

Coulter’s 1900s Redfern terrace last sold for $1,135,000 in 2010.

The Nova FM drive time co-host and Harrison called Avalon Beach home for nearly a decade before selling two years ago.

The 1990s house was bought for $1.1m in 2014, a year after the couple tied the knot in Paris. Coulter told her 624,000 Facebook followers she was planning their return to the City of Love.

The couple first called a Bondi rental apartment home together about 2010, a year after they met at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne.

Damien Leith

The Irish expat and Season Four winner, Damien Leith, has quietly carved out a successful career as a singer, making smart real estate moves along the way.

Leith and his wife Eileen purchased a four-bedroom house in Sydney’s Inner West in 2011 for $940,000.

They sold the Petersham home in 2014 for reportedly more than $1.28 million, netting a tidy $340,000 profit.

Leith and his family currently resides in Wollongong, NSW

Jessica Mauboy

Jessica Mauboy shot to fame on the fourth season of Australian Idol.

Since the talent series, the singer has had chart-topping albums and starred in films Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires.

Back in 2016, the musician forked out $1.8 million for a two-level apartment in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.

The R & B hit maker made the move to Sydney from the Territory in 2009, leaving behind her then partner and now husband Themeli Magripilis.

“I just got all tingly,” she said of when they finally moved in together. “It was a ­little girl moment.”

It was the first known foray into the property market for the Darwin-born songstress.

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