Who won The Block's Domain Listings and Buyers Jury challenge for 2025?
As we near The Block auctions for 2025, the same question is on everyone’s lips: Who will win?
In the absence of billionaire bidders like Adrian Portelli and Danny Wallis this year, the opinion of everyday buyers matters more than ever.
This week, in the Domain Listings and Buyers Jury challenge, 100 potential buyers inspected each of the houses and voted for their favourite. It’s one of the most important challenges on the show: the winner gets $50,000 cash, a Domain magazine cover story, and some insight as to how they might fare come auction day.
Contestants had to create a listing for their house – found only on Domain – and also write copy and style rooms for the photos, highlighting their home’s best features.
As judge Marty Fox said, it’s all about appealing to the Daylesford market.
One team had a controversial trick up their sleeves which helped them win the challenge.
A tale of two wine cellars
For weeks, we’ve heard about Robby and Mat’s secret wine cellar in House 5. It’s a feature they hoped would woo buyers at the Domain challenge, where it was dubbed “The Block’s only underground wine cellar”.
But this all changed after 2023 winners Steph and Gian made a guest appearance at The Rex Theatre challenge and got chatting to Emma and Ben while doing a walkthrough of their house.
Steph commented on the elevation of House 1 compared to the others, saying: “You could create something under that.” Gian suggested a wine cellar.
“If we put a wine cellar in the bottom of our backyard, it’d be considered cheating,” Ben had said weeks earlier.
Emma had also called flat-out copying “a bit sneaky”, referring to the fact Han and Can “drew inspiration” from Sonny and Alicia’s heated bench seat in the Hepburn Springs Bathhouse challenge.
However, all it took was some words of encouragement from Steph and Gian, and Emma and Ben were on board to convert the space under their home into a potentially game-winning feature.
Emma and Ben want a cellar, but can they pay for it?
When Robby finds out about Emma and Ben’s plans on the night of the Domain challenge, he has to break the news to Mat.
“We’re the only …” Robby pauses as he tells Mat, a wistful look in his eye, “… underground wine cellar on The Block. Well, we were.”
“Someone else doing one?” Mat asks. A grim nod from Robby.
“No! You’re lying! Who?”
“Sonny and Cher?” Mat guesses, referring to their next-door neighbours, Sonny and Alicia. Wrong. “House 1?”
Robby confirms this, and Mat looks like a stunned mullet.
“F— off. How long have they had it for?”
They haven’t even started building it yet, but after some advice from Domain property editor Alice Stolz, Emma and Ben decide to put signs up spruiking their own cellar to pique the interest of buyers.
“Get your own ideas,” Mat complains. “You can’t win a thing, so you try and copy.”
Robby reminds Mat that the cellar doesn’t exist and they don’t have any money to pay for the build, before lamenting: “They might win 50 grand tonight and pay for it all.”
“Let’s hope not,” Mat says.
Who won The Block’s Domain Listings and Buyers Jury challenge?
| House | Team | Score | Place |
| House 1 | Emma and Ben | 24% | 1st |
| House 2 | Han and Can | 13% | 5th |
| House 3 | Britt and Taz | 21% | 3rd |
| House 4 | Sonny and Alicia | 19% | 4th |
| House 5 | Robby and Mat | 23% | 2nd |
Emma and Ben win – by a single percentage point.
They’re “over the moon” at winning the cash, and thrilled by the fact that their property resonated with buyers the most, but perhaps even more, at not coming second again.
“We didn’t come second!” Emma says. “We were saving it for this one.”
The runners-up this time are Robby and Mat, which feels like a sucker punch to the duo, especially since their cellar, you know, already exists.
As the only team with some of their landscaping completed (they added potted plants and trees at the front of their home for the challenge), Britt and Taz were confident they would stand out to buyers. However, they placed third.
Britt’s “absolutely gutted”, considering the fact that they feel they’ve thrown everything at this challenge and, according to Taz, couldn’t have done anything more.
Coming last, with just 13 per cent of the vote, Han describes the result as “Absolutely s—h—-, to put it that way.” Still, she’s a good sport about it and congratulates Emma and Ben right away.
It’s a bitter loss for Robby and Mat, who are clearly cheesed off with Emma and Ben after their win.
“[Ben’s] an engineer, and if he didn’t think of that the minute they got the keys to that house, he wouldn’t be a very good engineer,” Robby says.
“Anyway, don’t be shady,” Mat says, “We’re happy they won 50 grand.”
We’re not so sure about that.
Check out The Block 2025 listings – only on Domain
House 1: Emma and Ben
House 2: Han and Can
House 3: Britt and Taz
House 4: Sonny and Alicia
House 5: Robby and Mat
We recommend
We thought you might like
States
Capital Cities
Capital Cities - Rentals
Popular Areas
Allhomes
More
