As Season 21 of Channel 9’s ‘The Block’ wrapped up last night with the highly anticipated ‘Block Auctions’, I can’t help but wonder how they could get it so wrong.
The 2025 season has left many experts and viewers questioning the shows choices as the Auctions turned out to be a significant disappointment. The results spoke for themselves with some of the houses just couldn’t sell and failing to meet expectations. This is not the first year that the end results were a complete flop for the contestants.
The Results.
As a brief summary of what Season 21 entailed- there were 10 contestants (5 couples) that built mansion style dream homes in Victoria’s countryside town of Daylesford. These were large ‘luxury retreat style’ homes on 2,000 sqm (approx.) blocks and each had a spa, sauna, wine cellar and one house even had a reformer Pilates studio.
One of the homes, built by popular contestants Britt and Taz won the reality show with House 3, fetching $3.41million resulting in $420,000 above the reserve of $2,990,000 as well as the prize money of $100,000 resulting in a take home prize of $520,000.
The other 4 properties dwindled at the auctions, picking up any leftovers with 2 of the properties fetching just over $100k, and 2 others being passed in at auction.
House 1- Passed in
House 2- $3,060,000 ($120,000 profit)
House 3- $3,410,000 ($420,000 profit plus $100,000 prize money)
House 4- Passed in
House 5-$3,099,999.10 ($109,999.10 profit)
It seems that when Adrian Portelli is not an active bidder, they are not going to make significant profits. Famed for his odd bidding- IT entrepreneur, Danny Wallis did attend and even pushed some of the bids higher, successfully securing house 5, but if he was absent they all would have likely flopped.
Why did they choose Daylesford, Victoria?
Daylesford is renowned for its beautiful natural surroundings, mineral springs, and artsy vibe. It is popular for weekenders looking for a town with ‘organic café’ charm. However, it is certainly not an area you would expect to be find luxury high-end real estate. The local properties have historical country cottage charm.
Honestly, I don’t know why they chose Daylesford. It certainly wasn’t for the best sale price of the properties. Likely, it was due to strategic misjudgement and only because they could easily get production crew out there, quick building approvals, large blocks of land consecutively which makes the show better for entertainment when the neighbours are bickering with each other, and for the cheaper land prices.
It certainly wasn’t because it was a good place to build luxury mansions.
Daylesford lacks momentum, there is no demand for this style of property. Looking at online listings, there are some beautiful country-style properties available for less than half the price of the block homes.
The facts and figures on Daylesford, Vic.
Daylesford lies 110km from Melbourne. You need to drive for at least 1hr and half north-west of Melbourne to arrive to a farming town which is known to house 80% of Australia’s mineral water springs. The main industry is tourism, with farm stays and organic farming the main economic drivers here.
The town’s population is under 3,000 people so it is certainly on the small spectrum even for regional towns.
I am not sure who they were targeting here to buy the houses, likely wealthy investors looking for tax depreciation benefits as it certainly wasn’t for the locals.
The average house price in Daylesford, Vic is $820,000, so slotting in $3million+ mansions into this regional town, wasn’t the smartest move. In fact, since 2023, the capital growth year-on-year has been declining here. Not only that, but the quarterly growth in Daylesford was also -4.37% with a 12-month growth of -7.08%. With many regional towns in Australia currently thriving and experiencing periods of strong growth, they really did not investigate location at all when they selected Daylesford.
Location and demand.
The results from this year’s auctions proves the importance of location and demand.
Daylesford favours properties that have historical value, and are quaint cottages, not large modern mansions with infrared saunas.
The properties that were built by contestants clashed with the demand and style of the location and ignored the markets preferences, resulting in a lack of viability and interest come auction day.
Location is crucial when building a property that you are planning to sell at a profit. The local market directly influences the property’s desirability, demand, and value.
A prime location will attract more homeowner buyers as well as more investors who might plan to hold on to for the long term for capital growth benefits and this demand is what leads to higher sale prices.
Prime factors, even in regional towns, that need to be considered is the proximity to amenities, schools, transportation options, and the desirability of the neighbourhood.
It appears that the production team have really missed the mark in this season of the block in many facets.
They have chosen a market with negative capital growth, the area has a lack of amenities and there is no market for high end modern luxury houses in this area.
They have chosen an area with a low population, of less than 3,000 people as well decided to build properties that do not meet the market demand.
Disservice to contestants
Through lack of due diligence on the location, the show and producers certainly did a disservice to the contestants. The contestants trusted that their effort and time away from work and family would be rewarded and it is a fair assumption that the contestants would assume producers would have done enough due diligence and research on the area and market that they would be in favour of prospective buyers.
The lack of due diligence and market research ultimately set the contestants up for failure by not aligning the type of property to the demand of the market.
The contestants were unfortunately set up to fail this year, and it will be interesting to see whether the show has now lost momentum for a 22nd season.
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