It’s finally time! After a stressful season of digging, plastering, painting and crying, The Block contestants have finally reached the day they’ve all been dreaming of — the long-awaited auction.
While the auction is always one of the most emotionally demanding days on The Block calendar, this year, the co-creator of the show, Julian Cress, admits that it’s steeped in more anxiety than usual.
In a chat with TV WEEK Magazine, Cress admitted that he’s anxious for the outcome of the final auction.
“I’m incredibly nervous for the auctions,” show creator Cress told TV WEEK.
“I have real friendships that we’ve built with the cast and the crew this year. We love these guys and the thought of seeing any of them fail at auction is really hard to bear.
“It would be painful to the point of heartbreaking if any of them didn’t sell their house on auction day.”
While Julian always tells the contestants to expect the worst, he does note that this year is a particularly tricky one due to the housing market in the area.
“On any Saturday of the year, there will be at least five auctions in Brighton and all of those houses will sell. But there has never been a Saturday in Daylesford when five houses have sold at auction… ever,” he says.
According to realestate.com, the median house price in Daylesford sits at around $810,000, while the houses i the Middleton Field housing estate — where The Block houses are located — can go from anywhere between $850,000 to $1.2 million.
Honestly, this is a teeny-tiny amount in comparison to The Block homes this season, which are valued from $3 million to $3.3 million.
So, will buyers be willing to throw down some serious cashola for a house featured on the beloved reality show? Only time will tell.
What happens if The Block houses don’t sell at auction?
While we’re all crossing our fingers and toes that all the teams will sell at auction, there is a chance that they won’t reach the reserve price (the minimum amount of money a seller will accept for their property).
In this scenario, it’s up to the sales agent to get to work to negotiate a higher price with potential buyers. Alternatively, if couples think they’re not going to get much of a profit on the day, their auctioneer can end the auction early in the hopes that further negotiations will result in a higher profit.
Although some couples from the show’s history have walked away with millions, there have been couples walk away with very little profit.
For example, 2022 Blockheads Tom Calleja and Sarah-Jane Wilson only received $20,000 profit for their home. While any proft sounds good, they say it cost more than 20K for them to go on the show in the first place.
“We spent mor than $20,000 of our savings to be here,” Sarah-Jane told Refinery 29 at the time.
Fingers crossed this won’t be the case for the 2025 couples whose homes went up for auction this weekend!
You can tune into The Block finale on Nine or 9Now.
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