Block contestants fear houses ‘might not sell’ ahead of season finale

It’s a nervous wait for The Block finale, as contestants and even host Scott Cam fret about shifting the multimillion-dollar properties.

It’s been a nervous wait for The Block’s contestants – and fans of the show – as the reno series heads to auction in a very shaky market in Sunday’s grand finale.

And in a preview of the finale aired by Nine this week, one contestant is shown voicing their collective biggest fear: That the houses may not sell.

“These houses might not sell – so the whole unknown is actually quite scary,” contestant Ryan is shown saying, as his wife Rachel looks on in worry.

There is a precedent, with The Block New Zealand’s most recent season ending in absolute disaster last month.

Rachel and Ryan are all nerves ahead of the auction.

The winning couple netted just $NZ4000 ($A3046) in a record-low auction result for the Kiwi franchise.

Thankfully, they also received $NZ100,000 in prize money for coming out on top. Fellow competitors weren’t so lucky, with the couple who came in second place making a profit of just $NZ100 ($A76) once their home sold.

All five of Australia’s Block houses have the same $4 million to $4.4 million price guide – but their reserves will be revealed in tonight’s grand finale.

It’s always a tense reveal, as this is the hurdle each team has to clear to make any profit on The Block – and host Scott Cam has even intervened in past years, demanding the contestants’ reserves be lowered so they have a better chance of making a profit.

But Cam said in a radio interview on Friday that he wouldn’t be doing that again this year, confessing the powers that be were not happy he’d cost Nine around “half a million dollars” when he demanded the reserves be lowered (Nine owns the homes, with the contestants only pocketing whatever profit they make over the reserve).

And Cam said he and the team behind The Block were especially nervous for the contestants this season, given the difficult market conditions.

“Interest rates went up again on Melbourne Cup day,” he pointed out during an appearance on Today this week.

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“We hand our show over to other people on the grand finale – we give it to real estate agents and the buying public, and we’ve got no control. We are very nervous,” he said.

His fears are shared by one of last year’s contestants, Kirsty Lee Akers. She and husband Jesse Anderson raked in more than $300,000 during the 2021 season – but Akers said she had “a bad feeling” ahead of this year’s auction.

“Interest rates have shot up and the market has cooled, plus everyone is saying these homes will sell for $5 million, but some of the better homes recently sold in that area (the Macedon Ranges in Victoria) only made about $2 million,” she said.

“That’s a huge price difference.”

The Block has been on a winning streak in recent years, with even contestants who place last in the competition going home hundreds of thousands of dollars richer.

Last year’s winners Mitch and Mark earned $744,000 for their efforts, while the year before, Jimmy and Tam scored the biggest win in Block history, with $1.066m.

But there have been horror years in the past — like 2014, where two teams earned just $10,000 apiece and another only $40,000.

Cam also revealed recently that the show did give contestants a helping hand behind-the-scenes after last week’s final reveals showed that each team had things they still needed to finish in their mammoth builds.

“Because we had supply chain issues, everybody had a few unfinished things. The Block’s building company finalised a few of those things, so we could get them ready for market,” he explained in a Friday interview on Fox FM.

“We want everybody to make money on The Block.”