The Block winners seen high-fiving millionaire ‘friend’ moments before record-breaking auction

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from Sunday’s season finale has led to fresh questions about Omar and Oz’s relationship with a bidder.

The Block winners Omar Slaimankhel and Ozman ‘Oz’ Abu Malik are facing renewed pressure to explain their links to a bidder on their home after a fresh clip of them together emerged.

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from Sunday’s season finale, Omar and Oz are seen high-fiving millionaire bidder Adrian Portelli - before the auction has even begun.

The Sydney friends emerged as the winners of The Block’s ‘Treechange’ season, earning by far the biggest win in the show’s near-20-year history with a profit of $1,686,666.66 for their luxe home in Gisborne, country Victoria.

It came after serial Block bidder Danny Wallis – who ended up buying the three homes that actually sold at auction – became locked in a battle with two other bidders, among them Portelli.

Portelli made a flashy arrival in a Lamborghini, greeted Omar and Oz with a hug and made some huge bids on their property before Wallis outbid him.

Then he left, leaving viewers questioning why he didn’t stick around to nab a bargain with any of the other homes.

There are also now questions about how well Portelli knew the Block winners, given they were on good enough terms to share a pre-auction high-five.

Omar and Oz are the biggest Block winners ever. Picture: Nine

“Oz and I got together with our agents a fair bit and they mentioned we had to reach out to all our networking and see who would potentially be able to come to the house and have a look at it,” Omar told Daily Mail Australia.

“We reached out to a mutual friend (Portelli) who said he might be keen. He’s watched the show. He’s seen our house and he absolutely loved it when he did come and see it a few weeks ago.”

He added that he was “disappointed” people felt Portelli may have been a ‘dummy bidder’ designed to push the price of the home up.

“He also saw another couple of houses and unfortunately for the them he wasn’t interested. I’m pretty sure he went to house three or four on auction days,” Omar added.

Bidder Adrian Portelli high-fives Omar, Oz and their real estate agent. Picture: Nine

In another interview with 2DayFM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin, the pair explained that while they seemed to have a friendly relationship with Portelli going into the auction, they were actually working hard behind the scenes to court multiple possible buyers.

“We only knew him from when he first visited our house … We met another beautiful family that we got very close to. They came to the house a few times; we took them to the basketball as well. Everyone who was a potential buyer, we really gave up our time for them,” said Omar.

Oz expanded on this in another interview with Kyle and Jackie O, telling the hosts: “It’s all about networking. As soon as we finished the build. we got out there, trying to market our property the best we can.”

They also explained Portelli’s absence from the rest of the auctions. Omar said that the other contestants had reached out to Portelli before auction day, and he had inspected house Tom and Sarah-Jane’s, but that by auction day “he was only interested in our house. It was perfect for him – it was all he wanted.”

Speaking to news.com.au, Omar and Oz said they were proud of their win, pointing to several unique features of the property that they say helped it sell for almost $1.5m higher than that of second-place contestants Rachel and Ryan.

Controversial Block bidder Adrian Portelli. Picture: Channel 9

“We had uninterrupted views of the Macedon Ranges, and a lot of privacy, and one of the bigger pools on The Block – thankfully everything worked in our favour,” said Omar.

True, but their mammoth windfall was not without controversy.

Scott Cam was flabbergasted at the incredible first auction result, announcing of the boys’ massive profit: “Someone at Channel 9 is going to lose their job.”

Eccentric multi-millionaire Wallis later even conceded he “probably” overpaid for the property.

“I probably spent too much at the first auction, but was surprised to pick up two more homes at what I feel was a bargain price, so I guess it all evened out in the end for me at least,” Wallis said.

So what will they do with all that cash? The longtime pals confirmed it would be evenly split, giving them both a staggering profit of more than $843,000.

“The cash will go to starting something for to our kids, some for ourselves, and some to charity. The more you give, the more you get back,” said Oz.