The Block – What are they worth now (2022)?

Source: realestate.com.au

Cameron Street in Richmond is a relatively quiet street and is close to all the main amenities, shops, cafes, restaurants and trams. There are a few small industrial sights nearby including a car park across the road from the house. The house has a good floorplan and an extended indoor/outdoor living area with a great deck. A private car park would have attracted a premium for this property.

Unfortunately, for Polly and Waz they walked away with the lowest winnings from all of The Block seasons at $115,000 (including the $100,000 cash prize). However, the owners are sitting pretty as this property has experienced the highest average annual growth (approx. 6.4% pa) of all the Melbourne Block properties.

Source: realestate.com.au

This seasoned featured rundown terrace houses on Dorcas Street. Dorcas Street can be a bit of a thoroughfare as it traverses South Melbourne from east to west.

The winning apartment was a medium size 3 story family home with a good floor plan with decent size bedrooms and two internal living areas. One provides good indoor/outdoor living with a deck and BBQ area. The South facing living could have been dark but the architect maximised natural light with multiple well-placed large patio doors. For a family home, a car space or two would have been great. However, the wow factor was certainly present with a rooftop entertainers’ deck with 180-degree views of the city.

Brad and Lara walked away with a decent amount of change at $606,000 and the owners who have never sold have enjoyed around 3.6% average growth per year.

Source: realestate.com.au

This season saw a 1912 theatre conversion into tri-level warehouse apartments on a nice residential street in a blue-ribbon locale.

The floorplan features a few negatives – a spiral staircase is not everyone’s cup of tea and there was a missed opportunity to put a full bedroom on the first floor, which may have increased the appeal to a younger downsizer. However, two car spaces and a storage cage are very handy and the private rooftop terrace certainly brings the wow! An entertainers delight with city views. There is also a surprise communal indoor heated pool on the ground floor.

It is difficult to find evidence that this apartment was worth $2.5 million in 2014. The current median house price in Albert Park is $2,052,500 and it might be more appealing to buyers to secure a 3-bedroom house than an apartment.

This property saw Alisa and Lysandra, in their second Block appearance, rake in the money. With a reserve of $1,834,000 and a selling price of $2,470,000 they walked away with a cool $736,000 (including the 100k cash prize). Alisa and Lysandra total winnings now from 2 seasons of the Block was $1,131,000.

The Glasshouse Source: realestate.com.au

As soon as you see the street name “High Street” in a property address, you know it is on a main road that carries traffic and whilst it may give you great access to amenities, a quieter residential street would be preferred.

However, what this property lacks in street location it makes up for in size. You could almost consider this property a townhouse due to its generous proportions. The floorplan has 3 large bedrooms, a dedicated study zone and a sizable terrace. If we were to be super critical there seems to be wasted space at the entrance and the laundry at the front door is not ideal.  Increasing the appeal is two private car spaces and a secure 70sqm storeroom.

The use of a central void and the title “Glasshouse” means there is lots of natural light. You just have to decide if living on a main road is for you.

Triple Threat Source: realestate.com.au

This former 1970’s apartment block saw the winning couple, Darren and Deane, returning contestants, walk away with the most prize winnings in one season in Block history until the controversial Block 2020. Which now places them with the second most winning. The judges loved their room reveals, awarding them the winning room 5 out of 10 judgements, including a perfect room score for their terrace.

The north-facing terrace townhouse has a good floorplan; however, 4 levels may not appeal to everyone, especially with the master bedroom at the top! The third bedroom is a little small and just as a fun idea maybe a laundry shoot would have been beneficial with the bedrooms all upstairs and the laundry on the lower floor!

The expansive open living extends seamlessly to a private courtyard with multiple floor to ceiling bi-fold doors. The double garage on the lower floor has a 400-bottle wine cellar which is a nice touch. Darling Street is close to Toorak Road and all its amenities, but the train line runs down behind the houses on the opposite side of the street.

The Block 2016 Source: realestate.com.au

This time the Block took place in a heritage art deco building, the winning apartment was fan faves William and Karlie who netted the third-highest winnings in Block history at $815,000.

This courtyard apartment, comparable to a townhouse boasts an excellent floor plan. It is straightforward with open plan living that extends into an alfresco area. It has 3 generous size bedrooms, an oversize ensuite, a private courtyard and a single car space. Like all the other Block properties it comes with all the bells and whistles, but people fell hard for William and Karlie’s aesthetics.

This part of Ingles Street isn’t in the best location with light industry around however it is close to the light rail and Bay Street shops and restaurants. The buyers probably paid a little over at the time but overall this one was nice!

Source: realestate.com.au

After a few seasons of apartments and townhouses, this one saw our contestants renovating rundown weatherboard houses.

This season is one of our favourite locations. Regent Street is a nice suburban residential street with very little traffic. There are train and tram transport options nearby and shops around the corner. Caulfield Grammar a popular private school is located nearby as well. It is possibly only equalled by O’Grady St in Albert Park for location.

The floor plan for living areas is good, including a family room for the kids and a lounge for the grown-ups. However, the master bedroom (and a second bedroom) are located above the garage which is separate from the main residence. Not sure about running from the main house to my bedroom in the middle of winter!

There are 3 bedrooms in the main residence whilst they don’t look quite big enough (the floorplan doesn’t have measurements on it), it would have been good if one of them could have been the main bedroom especially if you had small children! The above garage accommodation would be good as a teenage retreat, for visitors or even a BnB scenario.

Comedian and radio host Dave Hughes famously purchased this property, the 3rd most expensive in Block history. He is quoted as saying “I had trouble renting it. It took a while.” “At one point the real estate agent rang me and said, ‘someone wants to move in but they’ve got a dog’. I felt like saying, ‘I don’t care whether they’ve got a meth lab’. Let’s hope he was just having a little joke with his listeners!

The Gatwick Source: realestate.com.au

The Gatwick hotel was an infamous rooming house in St Kilda for the old, infirmed, downtrodden or drug or alcohol-addicted who could afford a night in the dilapidated but cleanish rooms. However, the owners, two sisters, after reportedly struggling with the cost of ongoing upkeep put it on the market in December 2015 where the Block bought it for $10m.

The underdogs, Sara and Hayden were crowned the winners of the 14^th season of the Block, pocketing $645,000. The contestants transformed the 240 sqm sub-penthouse apartment with grand luxury and from memory the most expensive bathroom of all Block time!

It is a straightforward floorplan with bedrooms and bathrooms down one side of the hall and an open kitchen and living leading to a large north facing balcony on the other, with a single car park and storage cage in the basement.

Overall the floorplan is good with a nice open kitchen and living which allows easy access to the sizeable balcony.  The master bedroom would have been better located at the front of the property and the third bedroom in its place. Also, the walk-in robe at the front of the property is too big – a bit smaller and the creation of a study or more appropriate study area would have worked better in our opinion.

Fitzroy St is well known and centrally located with Albert Park across the road, but it is busy with trams and traffic.

Where do we start on the series that probably had the most famous post-production end ever and was shut down, albeit temporarily, because of a pandemic!!!

Mid production the Block had to shut down and the couples were sent home as the pandemic forced Australia in and out of lockdowns. After over a months break the couple were able to return and the early front runners Jimmy and Tam continued to take out room and challenge wins with their 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom palm springs inspired mid-century house. Jimmy and Tam went all-in on meeting the brief of matching their design choices to the period but their bold colour and design choices did polarise critics.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions for the first time inspections were conducted virtually and auction day only had a small group of registered bidders in attendance. One of them an eccentric millionaire, Danny Wallis bought three houses, but Jimmy and Tam’s winning bid came from a young woman who only visited the house for the first time the night before.

The 1950s-inspired home sold for a whopping $4.256 million – that’s $966,000 over their reserve, smashing all previous Block records. Before the highest profit over reserve was achieved by 2015’s Darren and Deanne, who earned $935,000 (including their $100,000 prize money).

However, sensationally the buyer of the house failed to pay for the property by the settlement date. Controversially Jimmy and Tam retained their title as The Block 2020 winners and all winnings (including the $100,000 winner’s prize). We might leave it here with “no comment” but mention the underbidder’s final bid was the eccentric millionaire, with a bid of $4,241,691.18.

It did sell in May 2021 for $4 million. We do expect this property will enjoy good growth over the years, but have made our comparison to the original sold price at the Block auction where people tend to pay overs!

Surely season 17 couldn’t top season 16 for controversy and excitement!

Oh but the 2021 Fan and Faves series didn’t disappoint with “photogate” the cheater’s photo that was taken and shared of the production schedule. Most of this season consisted of a Cluedo ‘who dunnit’ with some house renovating happening on the side.

Fan favourites Mitch and Mark took out the win with their renovated and extended weatherboard period home from the 1910s. Mitch and Mark received consistently harsh feedback from the judges throughout the series but managed to pull off the win to become $744,444 richer. Advertised as a family-friendly sanctuary of space and style in a secluded bayside cul-de-sac setting, this home on 586m2 does have lots of appeal and a tonne of skylights! The delightful front garden and heritage weatherboard facade is sure to get a few hearts racing though we do wonder is the day spa steam room for everyone!

The property was purchased by serial block buyer Danny Wallace who also happened to purchase Mitch and Mark’s Oslo apartment in 2019, (where Mitch and Mark, unfortunately, came last).

Like the Brighton house, we do expect this property to enjoy good growth over the years but the market value is currently under what it sold for under lights and cameras a year ago at auction.

This season seemed to feature an extreme amount of mud and Scott Cam for the first time renovated a property. And whilst there were the normal ups and downs of a season, auction day was the most eventful drama-filled auction for many seasons.

Omar and Oz’s property was first on the blocks, a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 4 car luxury home on 10 acres with resort-style amenities with approximately $250,00 of Swizz V-Zug appliances in their kitchen.

Two bidders fought it out for the property with Danny Wallace winning the keys for a cool $5,860,000.66 which saw Omar and Oz netting the biggest winnings ever in Block history – $1,686,666.66. The other contestants buoyed by this result couldn’t wait for their turns however the demand for four more $4 million dollar properties in Gisborne wasn’t there and the winnings dropped to $20,000 and $170,000 and two properties passed in on the day. The final property to sell took another month on the market and sold for $3,900,000.