Will The Block 2025 houses sell at auction?
With everything from a pickleball court, to a wine cellar, speakeasy-inspired bar and luxury caravan on offer, there’s no question this year’s homes on The Block are at the prestige end of the Daylesford property market.
But at $3 million to $3.3 million – more than four times the Victorian spa town’s median house price of $820,000 – will all five of the show’s four-bedroom, three-bathroom properties actually sell at auction?
The town’s median house price dropped 6.3 per cent in the last year, but has risen 26.6 per cent over the past five years.
Another major factor is that billionaire Adrian Portelli, who carried out a clean sweep of all five Block houses last year, has declared he is out of the running this year.
Kim McQueen, of McQueen Real Estate, says this year’s Block houses are at the “high, high end” of the local market.
McQueen, the agent for Robby and Mat’s House 5, says the market is finally starting to pick up after a tough few years post-COVID, marked by interest rate rises, cost of living pressures and new government taxes that deterred many investors.
“The market has been really very, very sluggish over the past few years.”
However, while spring had started with “gusto”, McQueen says investors remain thin on the ground. “Our buyers now need to be more owner-occupiers and holiday homes.”
Many are tree-changers, or people splitting their time between Melbourne and Daylesford.
Usually, homes in Daylesford sell via private sale, rather than auction, says McQueen, but notes the reality TV show is a different story all-round.
“Buyers are buying Block houses for different reasons than they would normally be purchasing houses,” she says.
“One of the main reason that buyers buy Block houses is they are investors, and there’s amazing depreciation schedules on these properties, because they’re brand new and they’re full of furniture, equipment, tennis courts, swimming pools.”
So far, there’s been some interstate and local interest in House 5, and no shortage of bogus inquiries.
“There’s never a lot of buyers for Block houses, but we’re certainly getting some good, well-qualified people going through and looking at the properties at the moment,” says McQueen.
Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell says market conditions in Melbourne and the rest of Victoria have “improved vastly” compared to this time last year, leading to improved buyer confidence.
Powell says that’s because of the value that’s built up over time, along with a drop in interest rates.
“So, the value and the lower cash rate have, I think, really helped to put a bit of pep back in buyers’ steps. And that’s come out overall in higher clearance rates.”
Auction clearance rates in Melbourne during September rose to 69.4 per cent – the highest since mid-2023, says Powell.
“When we see shifts in the cash rate, we tend to see our bigger capital cities react quicker. So, that is Sydney and Melbourne, and then you get that ripple effect that occurs in those outer areas, too.
However, she says the show is always a “unicorn, because they’re aiming for a 100 per cent clearance rate with five similar homes, which is a rarity, but they also then have a marketing campaign that’s on steroids”.
Real estate agent Tom Shaw, of BigginScott Daylesford, is selling Sonny and Alicia’s House 4, and says inquiries are starting to trickle in, including interest from several Melbourne buyers’ advocates.
“I don’t classify it as a typical auction campaign in which you see buyers coming from the very beginning, because there’s sort of a parallel narrative of what’s airing on the show and what’s actually in real life,” says Shaw.
So far, he’s had interest from people looking to relocate from interstate, or others considering purchasing it as a luxury weekender.
“Historically we haven’t seen a lot of sales in and around the Daylesford area around $3 million,” he says.
“So, it’s going to be interesting to see if we can sell all five of them on the same day.”
He says it might come down to the reserve price.
Meanwhile, Ray White Sunbury’s Aaron Hill, the agent for Emma and Ben’s House 1, says it’s so far been “the quietest Block I’ve had in four years”.
While he hopes things will pick up steam in the campaign’s final weeks, he admits to being concerned.
“I’m 100 per cent worried there’s going to be a few pass-ins this year,” he says, noting that’s not an unusual situation for the show.
Only time will tell.
“It’s a Block auction,” says Hill. So, anything can happen.”
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