Annette Sharp: Home truths about Roxy Jacenko’s $10m glittering prize

A Sydney home promoted by incorrigible PR woman Roxy Jacenko as the major prize in an online giveaway is not Jacenko’s own home but belongs to a couple of enterprising businessmen from Sydney’s south west.

A Sydney home promoted by incorrigible PR woman Roxy Jacenko as the major prize in an online giveaway is not Jacenko’s own home but belongs to a couple of enterprising businessmen from Sydney’s south west.

In recent days the media has reported Jacenko is giving away a Cronulla home the ex-pat spruiker claims is worth $10 million.

Real estate agents in the Shire aren’t convinced the house would attract that price however.

Jacenko has played up the vagaries around ownership of the four-bedroom, five-bathroom Cronulla home in a PR stunt aimed at driving subscribers to an online course which could bolster her income.

Last week this column learned the home is in fact owned by a pair of friends, a Mr Tleis and Alaourie, one of whom is said to own a childcare centre in Bankstown.

The men listed the property for auction with $10 million hopes last year.

When it failed to sell on December 6, the home, then given the classy moniker “Zephyr”, was taken off the market.

Roxy Jacenko pictured at a home in Cronulla she is giving away to one of her online course participants. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The Dodson Avenue, Cronulla, home. Picture: Supplied

Records show the Dodson Ave Cronulla home was on the market for 129 days last year before failing to sell at auction.

That was despite featuring in season three of TV show Australia’s Best House.

The vendors bought the home in October 2020 for $3,360,000.

Having given their real estate agent, Mitchell Wynn from Highland agency the flick after the marketing campaign was unsuccesful at attracting a buyer, the two men started looking for another way to achieve their hoped-for $10 million sale.

Enter Jacenko via unknown connections and a new plan was hatched.

Jacenko outside home in Cronulla she is giving away to one of her online course participants. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

While Jacenko is liberal with her use of high-end descriptive language in promoting ticket sales/subscriptions to her giveaway – her site describes the house in golden terms as “luxurious”, “flawless” and ”grand” – this column prefers Wynn’s original agency pitch which included the compelling sales point – the house is “1.1km from Cronulla Station”.

1acenko’s giveaway has been flogged breathlessly. Source: Core Logic

Jacenko’s giveaway has been flogged breathlessly, notably by media people like KIISFM’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, while being criticised by other sectors who have been at pains to point out some tweaks in the promotional language concerning the pitch for the giveaway.

Wordy terms and conditions reveal the giveaway is a game of chance in which other prizes may be won but the odds of winning the house being won are slim. At the very least the promo has revealed what we’ve long suspected might be true about Jacenko, if the online course fails to reboot her own business and brand following the closure of her PR company in 2022, she has a bright future in real estate.