The Block auctions dominated the headlines this weekend in Melbourne’s property market and I definitely wouldn’t have predicted that all 5 properties would sell under the hammer and smash there reserves for a total of $3,647,000 over reserve. Congratulations to all the contestants and in particular the girls who’s winning total of $1,870,000 was the highest win in Block history. Congrats to my good friend Rick on coming second with $905,000 and then the other contestants including house 3 winning $555,000, then house 1 with $455,000 and house 2 with $367,000 over reserve. I was predicting that at least two of the properties would pass in and that the reserves were quite high for the current market and didn’t expect the reserves to get smashed as they did.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-block-2026-winners-1576959/
It was another exciting auction finale and we were disappointed to miss out for a mix of downsizer clients and investor clients but it’s always important to stick to your budgets and make sure you don’t overpay. This has happened often in the past 18 series that we’ve been involved in where many buyers have overpaid and I’m sure the banks would not have valued it at the prices they’ve paid. We bid on all 5 properties but stuck to our guns and sworn valuation limits to make sure that we didn’t get carried away with the hype of the Block auctions. We’ve now bid on 65 of the 90 Block auctions and we have some disappointed clients as we unfortunately did not purchase our 11th property on The Block for our clients.
It was great to catch up with fellow Buyer’s Advocate Greville Pabst and do a wrap up of The Block auctions. As discussed with Greville, the main factor that made these auctions successful was the blue chip location and I said that this location and the O’Grady Street Dux House location in Albert Park were the two best locations of The Block properties that we have bid on in the last 18 series. This was the reason they were so successful and the reason the contestants made truckloads of money.
There are definitely more opportunities in Melbourne’s market place at the moment as seen with a house in Fitzroy which sold for $950,000 right on reserve. The property was passed in to the one sole bidder and sold well below where it would have sold when the market peaked in 2022 and the buyers got an absolute bargain as they are buying right near the bottom of Melbourne’s property market at the moment.
https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-vic-fitzroy-152551020