Host Scott Cam (back row C) with contestants from the 2010 season of the Channel 9 (9) TV program ‘The Block’.
They are The Block homes that time forgot — because the owners and buyers seem to have wanted it that way.
The year was 2010 and the renovation series returned to the small screen after a six and a half year hiatus with a bang – with a whole new look and a whole new host.
Celebrity tradie Scott Cam was installed as host for the first time, replacing Jamie Durie and the affluent Eastern Suburbs location of Vaucluse was chosen as the venue – where the median house price is usually around eight times the national average.
A relatively humble block of flats with ocean glimpses on former colonial access road, New South Head Rd, right next to Vaucluse shopping villages was chosen as the location for the show’s big comeback.
Contestants (L-R) Duncan and Mark, Brenton and Cheryl, host Scott Cam, Neisha and John, Erin and Jake from the 2010 season of the Channel 9 (9) TV show ‘The Block’.
After nine prime-time episodes, NSW couple John and Neisha Pitt were crowned as the winners and scored $305,000 as the winners of the third series.
The couple’s renovated two-bed ground floor apartment was snapped up under the hammer for $1.105m – $205,000 over the reserve.
That was the largest gain of any of the contestants, after eight weeks and $80,000 worth of renos in the tired old block.
“Words can’t describe the feeling. Our dream was to buy a house and now we really can,” the couple gushed after the win.
“The sky is the limit after finishing The Block so now we feel like we can take on anything, maybe even being parents.”
Erin and Jake Michael came second securing $997,500 for their home on the top of reserve of $910,000 for a profit of $87,500.
Mark Bower and Duncan Miller’s home went for $907,000 on the back of a reserve of $860,000 for a profit of $47,000.
The renovation series returned to screens in September 2010, after a six and a half year hiatus.
Cheryl ‘Chez’ Gravina and Brenton Court’s apartment wasn’t sold at auction but later changed hands for $970,000 after it’s auction reserve was set at $880,00. They earned a profit of $90,000.
The Block moved on Melbourne for series four, to its now permanent home of Victoria, with Cam returning as host and much of series three, the penultimate time it would be shot in Sydney, largely forgotten.
That is except for the owners of the Vaucluse flats and even those looking to later buy them.
The properties became locally known as ‘The Block flats’ but once the intial fanfare quickly died down there wasn’t much made of them, just another well-built apartment block among many others on the main drag that snakes all the way through Sydney’s East from Kings Cross to South Head.
The block during the renovations.
The series went for nine episodes.
But as time went on the association with The Block was something to be tolerated, not celebrated and then it was something to be memory holed.
According to property records, the most recent sale in the block was unit 4, Chez and Brenton’s home, which sold for $2.25m in Jun 2021, more than double the $970k it originally went for.
But in the advertising for that campaign, no mention was made of the home’s involvement in the Channel 9 reality show.
Series winners John and Neisha.
Was it no longer a selling point?
Indeed the keepsakes that Channel 9 left behind, such as a nine ‘balls logo’ on the front of the building and a similarly-themed intercom system were no longer part of the facade, stripped away entirely. Any material involvement with The Block erased.
This was in stark contract to the earlier 2015 sale of the home which trumpeted The Block’s involvement.
During the renos.
The finished product.
“Showcased on Channel 9’s ‘The Block’ in 2010” – the listing proudly declared, as did the strap in the video, but in 2021 … Nada.
Talk around the neighbourhood was that the sellers wanted it that way and judging from the sales result it didn’t hurt.
Other sales have shown that the hype from The Block doesn’t necessarily lead to buckets of money and/or savvy buys.
Radio host Dave Hughes is the poster child for buyer beware warnings about real estate form The Block.
Renovation couple Erin and Jake, contestants in the 2010 season of the Channel 9 TV program ‘The Block’.
Hughesy had onlookers gasping in shock when he blew $3.067m for Josh and Elise’s Elsternwich home from the 2017 series, $447,000 over the reserve.
The comedian made the catastrophic error of going against his wife’s wishes in making the big buy. He said he regretted it almost instantly after getting carried away at the auction and time didn’t heal those wounds.
No mention was made of its connection to The Block when this unit was sold four years ago.
“I went to get a bank loan the other day and they haven’t valued it the same as I paid for it, which is fine, but annoying because there were five bidders,” he later told Stellar magazine.
Dave Hughes should have listened to the Mrs. Source: Channel 9
Hughes didn’t reveal what valuation he was given, but did say it was: “Enough less that it made me annoyed. For f**k’s sake!”
English (US) · 