The biggest questions that need answering from The Block auctions this year

Not to be outdone by the drama that dominated most of this year’s season of The Block, the auctions rounded out Season 19 with an absolute bang, delivering enough twists and turns to give anyone whiplash.

From the massive highs of Steph and Gian’s history-making win to newbie renovators Eliza and Liberty’s  $1.05 million profit, to the massive shocks of Kristy and Brett leaving with just $65,000 and Leah and Ash’s house passing in, the auctions were as stressful as they were thrilling.

There were plenty of factors that affected the results

Did the drama and fighting affect the results?

Anyone who watched The Block 2023 would know there were mainly two houses at the centre of the drama: House 2 (Leah and Ash) and House 3 (Kristy and Brett).

There were tears, screaming matches, friendship-ending arguments and even accusations of bullying from other contestants. It was uncomfortable viewing at times, and the contestants copped a lot of backlash from the public over their behaviour as the season unfolded.

Coincidence or not, it was House 2 and House 3 that came out of Saturday’s auctions the worst off; Kristy and Brett’s house sold for just $65,000 above their reserve – a far cry from Steph and Gian’s $1.65 million and Eliza and Liberty’s $1.05 million profits – and Leah and Ash’s house did not sell at all. Just one bid of $2.9 million – $70,000 short of their reserve – was placed before they passed the property in.

Kyle and Leslie of House 1 fetched $130,000 over their reserve.

Kristy told journalists after her auction that she was “livid” and that the behaviour of some of the contestants had definitely affected the outcome of the auctions on the day.

Gallery: The Block 2023: All the action from the auctions

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“Ten-fold. If you’re not a fan favourite, you’re not going to make money. And I think that’s very apparent today,” she said.

She said to Scott Cam on the night: “Australia got what they wanted,” a thinly veiled reference to all the internet trolling they received during the series.

But buyer’s agent Frank Valentic, who is a regular fixture at The Block auctions every year and often bids on behalf of wealthy investor and owner-occupier clients, said that was simply not the case.

“All along, I said House 4 or House 5 [to win], even before we showed buyers through, because they were north-facing orientations,” he said.

“They had the largest land sizes and were positioned in a better part of the street. That theory was supported by the buyers when we started taking them through … they were definitely the standouts.”

He said any of the drama that had played out between the contestants during the series had absolutely nothing to do with the auction results on the day.

“I’ve been a buyer’s agent for 23 years and I know my buyers look for north-facing,” he said. “They want good floor plans, they want functionality. These houses [Houses 4 and 5] were family-friendly because they had really big living zones – the big family-meals areas.

“From the feedback, Houses 1, 2 and 3 didn’t have that same wow factor And, obviously they’re going to be disappointed with their results versus … what Houses 4 and 5 got, but that’s the market.”

Was house choice even more important than the auction order this year?

Steph and Gian turned lemons into lemonade with their house choice this year.

As the losers of the house-decider challenge, Steph and Gian were last to secure their property and House 4 was the only one left. Steph couldn’t believe her luck, telling producers: “How did [the other contestants] not see the potential of House 4?”

Leah and Ash, who won the challenge and selected House 2, failed to sell their property at auction.

Kristy and Brett had the choice between Houses 3 and 4 and went with 3. They made just $65,000 on auction day.

Buyer’s agent Frank Valentic said the feedback from all buyers was that Houses 4 and 5 were the best of the bunch.

“They’re north-facing orientations that had the largest land size and I think they were positioned in the better part of the street,” he said.

“They (Houses 4 and 5) were definitely the standouts and so I suppose they were the favourites to win and they did. Obviously, the other houses didn’t have the same orientation and [were] a bit smaller.”

Valentic was bidding for a buyer on House 3, but said they had discussed a price point as they wanted to allow for making changes to the floor plan.

“I think this one (House 3) had a compromising floor plan with the kitchen, and the person I was bidding for [was] looking at actually spending some money and pulling out the wall and open-planning it all [to overlook the pool],” he said.

“I think that’s why that one got the lowest price. I think that’s what held that back.

“Even my other buyers that were taken through, they kept saying, ‘It just doesn’t work.’ ”

Do the heavy-hitting rich-lister bidders scare off regular buyers?

They’ve become stalwarts of The Block auction night, and Danny Wallis and Adrian Portelli have bought 15 houses between them since Wallis’ first purchase in 2012.

But while the money is rolling in from the rich-listers, their mere presence is coming at a price.

Buyer’s advocate Frank Valentic said raising bids by $1 million, as happened with Steph and Gian’s sale, didn’t happen in normal auctions and was “hard to compete against”.

“I think that would be intimidating,” he said. “It’s tough for me to bid against them because you know that they’ve got deep pockets. Whereas when I was bidding against the other advocates we’re sort of on a more level playing field … you’re going up in fives or 10s or whatever, like when I was bidding against the buyer here [for House 3].

“That was more a normal auction. The game’s changed a bit.”

Agent Halli Moore, who is still negotiating the sale of House 2 for Leah and Ash after it was passed in at auction, agreed, saying families had been put off by the prospect of the heavy hitters.

“I think what we’ll find now is it will potentially open it up to real buyers who see value and aren’t’ scared off by Adrian and Danny and these sorts,” he said.

“I’m confident we’re going to get something done and it might be more in tune with a Bayside family buyer who sees value.”

Moore said he had a couple of “genuine families” in the lead-up to the auctions but, “no doubt they talked themselves out of it”.

“When you’re buying a house you sort of go a couple of times and you get excited that you’re half a chance,” he said. “A couple of clients we had through on that basis, when it got to the pointy end of getting close to the auction it was a decision they made to say, ‘We don’t want the kids to be disappointed, we don’t want to be let down, so we’d rather not get too invested because it’s probably going to go way over the top of what we’re prepared to pay.’ “

It was not the real world, he added. “There’s no doubt you do sacrifice some of the genuine buyers that have been involved get scared off by $5 million results from Adrian and the like.”

Is an auctioneer legally required to reveal when the reserve is reached?

When the hammer fell on Kristy and Brett’s house at $3.035 million, it netted them a comparatively small profit of $65,000.

It had been a slow auction and a complete change of speed from the two auctions before, which Kristy later blamed her agent for. She told reporters he had “shit the bed” and changed strategy.

“He pretty much revealed what our reserve was to the auction [crowd]”.

What her agent, Sam Inan of Belle St Kilda, had in fact revealed was that the house was on the market – but only after Marty Fox snr bid $2.97 million and Frank Valentic then asked, “Are we on the market?”

Inan told Domain afterwards that his hands were tied.

“With Consumer Affairs [Victoria] in attendance it’s very hard not to answer truthfully,” he said. “You can sometimes say, ‘Look I’ll answer you when I’m ready.’ But the reality is, with Consumer Affairs there and … knowing what the paperwork says, it’s very, very hard to do anything but tell the truth.

“They actually followed me around during the break and said, ‘You’d better make sure you reiterate that it’s on the market – I don’t think everyone heard you.’ ”

Inan said the disappointing results for Houses 1, 2 and 3 were not a direct consequence of his calling House 3 on the market.

“When I spoke to some of the buyers that didn’t bid on our properties they said they didn’t see the value in our homes, full stop,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with whether they were cheap or affordable on the day. They just didn’t like them.”

According to the Consumer Affairs Victoria website, agents are allowed to take a break at any time to consult with their vendor.

It says: “If the bidding is close to or has reached your reserve price (the lowest price at which you will sell), the auctioneer will ask if you will sell at the last bid or any higher bid that is made.

“If you agree, the auctioneer will tell the crowd that the property is ‘on the market’. This means the property will be offered to the highest bidder.”

Why Hughsey didn’t bid or buy anything this year

Entertainer Dave Hughes famously splashed the cash on Josh and Elyse’s house in 2017, paying $3,067,000 for their property in Elsternwick.

The price was $447,000 above reserve and netted the young couple more than half a million in winnings.

Hughes’s wife, Holly, had asked her husband to keep his bidding private and use a buyer’s agent, and while he had respected her wishes, host Scott Cam revealed after the auction that Hughes was the winning bidder.

Hughes revealed at the time his wife was not happy about the purchase becoming public.

“She wanted to keep it quiet, but yeah, it was on the front page of the Herald Sun on Monday morning,” Hughes told the Today Show following the auction.

But this year, Hughsey was back, with no buyer’s agent in sight. He attended in plain sight for all to see, and Scotty later told Steph and Gian that their house was his favourite. But he missed out on their property when it sold for a whopping $5 million.

After Eliza and Liberty’s auction – when he did not even raise a paddle to place a bid – Domain asked him if he would bid on any of the remaining three and, even more importantly, if his wife knew he was there.

He laughed and said: “Not at those prices!”

He was non-committal about whether he would bid on any of the others but did say his wife knew he was there.

In the end, he failed to even raise a paddle, despite multiple invitations from auctioneers.

But it’s an evolving story. When the show aired Sunday night, Leah and Ash’s agent Halli Moore was heard telling the couple Dave Hughes was talking to his wife about bringing her to look at their house in the coming days.

Watch this space. Hughsey could still be a dark horse.