The Block Daylesford: Three sales a happy outcome after major mistakes – realestate.com.au

The Block’s winning auctioneer and a leading Victorian property expert have revealed the show’s auction was a ‘phenomenal result’ that could easily have been worse.

As a litany of mistakes began when the site was purchased a year before work started, it was fortunate that three houses were sold.

PropTrack data has raised questions about why the auction-focused show focused on a city where only three other homes had been auctioned this year, and a total of four in the past 22 months.

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Cate Bakos, chairman of New Property Investment Professionals of Australia and prominent Victorian buyer advocate, said they would have sidelined a local market almost immediately by choosing an area with such limited auction experience.

Ms Bakos said it was “1000 per cent” a misstep to try to use an auction in “an area that is not open to it”.

“You have to do your research and I don’t think they did that, or they weren’t concerned about the local market,” she said.

“I doubt they had even the faintest interest from local buyers.”

Britt and Taz celebrate their victory after selling to a buyer. Image: Channel 9.

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Prominent buyer’s agent Cate Bakos said poor decisions in the run-up to The Block auctions were a “cocktail of desperation”.

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Noting that the homes were also near a “gigantic intersection,” Ms. Bakos said everything about this season seemed to be “poorly done,” including: buying in a regional area near the peak, selling at the bottom of the market and overcapitalizing on the buildings in between.

“Everything about it was a cocktail of desperation,” she said.

Ms Bakos added that the show was probably lucky not to have had an even weaker result when trying to sell five very similar houses in such a short time using a sales method that was not suitable for an area that was not used to such volume at the same time.

One positive from the show was that the houses were well-ordered when they went under the hammer that day, which guaranteed the best bids early on – and helped those who did succeed.

Block contestants Emma and Ben missed out under the hammer, with experts noting their reserve being too high as one of the show’s few mistakes.

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However, she noted that some credit was due as the purchase of The Block in Mt Eliza for next season seemed much more sensible – but only if they chose to create family homes that would suit affluent buyers and complement elite schools in the suburb.

Daylesford winning auctioneer Mark Nunn of The Block, who helped Britt and Taz’ to a result $420,000 above the reserve result, said that all told, just two stalled auctions was a good result for the season after producers overpriced the houses by around $400,000.

“If you look at it objectively and take out the TV part, to sell three houses under the hammer at auction for over $3 million is a phenomenal result,” Nunn said.

“The price was wrong. The houses were great houses, they were just too high in price. If they had priced them the way we told them to, we would have sold them all under the hammer.”

Buxton Ballarat’s Mark Nunn believes auction reserves were set too high during The Block’s Daylesford season.

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The Daylesford home of The Block contestants Han and Can is still for sale a week after the auction for the house on the show ended when it came in.

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The agent said they had argued for a reserve of $2.6 million, not close to $3 million, and that he believed the three sales over $3 million would still have occurred with lower asking prices and that “the whole story surrounding the show’s success would have been different.”

Mr Nunn added that even the other two achievements should have been celebrated, with $100,000 above reserve usually a cause for cheer for typical home sellers.

“It’s just the last few years that the bidding has just gotten out of control… which is great for a few seasons, but it’s not a reality,” Mr Nunn said.

Mr Nunn said while local statistics indicate auctioning is not always the best way to go in Daylesford, the potential buyers all lived interstate or outside Melbourne and with the TV component it could still have worked – with lower reserves.

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