“The ironic thing is, if [Clint] sold his property, he’d basically be a Westie, because that’s all he could afford.”

“Humbly wealthy” Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2025 groom Clint Rice started a bit of a feud with an entire Sydney suburb after taking a dig at Ryan Donnelly during the MAFS reunion. And look, it hasn’t gone down well.

The groom described Ryan’s living situation as a “one-bedroom shithouse” in the “Western suburbs”, which caused a lot of furore with Westies. There’s been stigma surrounding Western Sydney for decades, and for an area that’s one of Australia’s most ethnically diverse, Clint’s classist comments certainly raised eyebrows.

Property Valuer Belinda Botzolis from Add Valuer wasn’t impressed, saying that Clint’s comments were a “direct attack”.

“People don’t know Sydney and they just have this stigma with Western Sydney, and they think they’re all a bunch of bogans and low socio-economic people,” she explains. “People use it in a derogatory way, and that’s where the problem upset a lot of people… some of the nicest people in the world, the nicest homes I’ve seen are [in] South West and Western Sydney.”

Belinda has done some digging into the differences in value between Ryan and Clint’s properties, and tells Chattr that Clint wouldn’t actually be able to afford fiancee Jacqui Burfoot’s dream property in the Eastern Sydney Suburbs. Zing!
Clint’s Tasmanian property. Image: https://www.zanettobuilders.com.au/
“Ryan’s property actually is a three-bedroom, not a one-bedroom, and it’s also not actually located in Western Sydney. It’s in South Western Sydney,” she says. “His property is probably worth about $770,000 or $780,000.”

She believes Clint’s Tasmanian property is worth around $2.5 million, but notes his land value is “very cheap”.

“The difference is, Ryan can do a renovation on his home and adds a lot of value very quickly, while Clint can’t do anything to his property because it’s already at the highest and best use,” she explains.

“The ironic thing is, if [Clint] sold his property, he’d basically be a Westie [in Sydney], because that’s all he could afford.”

Could Clint afford Jacqui’s dream house in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs?

On MAFS, Jacqui talked about how she wanted a house in the Eastern Suburbs, as she was currently renting in Manly.

Belinda believes even if he sold his Tasmanian house, he wouldn’t be able to satisfy his bride-to-be.

“He can’t crack the Eastern Suburbs market. If he sold his home, the only thing he could afford is probably a pretty nice two-bedroom unit… cheapest house you could probably get into is Pagewood, and that’s not even considered the East,” Belinda says.
Clint and Jacqui during the reunion episode. Image: Nine
“Tasmania is the only state in the last quarter that has actually gone backwards in market value. Every other major city or capital city in the country has actually experienced property growth,” she adds.

“With Tasmania, that’s not even a flex, like your values are going backwards. At least Ryan’s is going forward, because his values in his area are increasing as like Sydney as a whole.”

Hmm. Maybe Clint’s postcode flex has backfired!