Darren and Dea Jolly's warehouse from The Block sells for $2.2 million

A two-level Prahran warehouse conversion, renovated by The Block‘s Darren and Dea Jolly in 2014, has sold under the hammer for $2.2 million.

Less than 24 hours after Melbourne emerged from a snap five-day lockdown, which saw on-site auctions and private inspections banned, five registered bidders turned out on Thursday night for the opportunity to snap up the trendy New York-style residence.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 6/125 High Street, Prahran, was one of five residences renovated in a building known as The Glasshouse, for the 2014 season of The Block – which delivered mixed results for contestants.

The Jollys, who have since separated, pocketed just $10,000 after the apartment they had worked on for months sold for $1.38 million. The price was well under the initial reserve of $1.4 million, which was lowered due to $30,000 awarded to the couple in challenges.

This time around, the young family who snapped up the apartment during the dramatic finale of The Block have walked away with an $820,000 profit.

At the time, many Melbourne property experts believed the buyers had scored a bargain, claiming several of the Glasshouse apartments had sold for on market or under market value due to a lack of depth of buyers.

SOLD - $2,200,000

6/125 High Street, Prahran VIC 3181

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However, it was a very different story when the Prahran property went under the hammer for just the second time on Thursday.

The bidding was “very hot” according to listing agent and auctioneer Fraser Cahill from Marshall White Stonnington,  with competition from five bidders, made up of young families and professional couples, pushing the final price $300,000 above the reserve.

The contemporary home was listed in January with a price range of $1.65 million to $1.75 million. The original listing called for expressions of interest before Tuesday, February 23.

However, Mr Cahill said, the decision was made to take it to auction after several buyers expressed strong interest in making the inner-city home their own.

“We decided about a week ago that we had all the ingredients for an auction with a really good foundation of buyers,” he said.

“The reserve was $1.9 million and in the end, there were two parties who were really battling it out right to the end and pushed that price up to $2.2 million,” he said.

The new owners are a young family, who were drawn to “the quality of the apartment” and the location.

The vendors, another young family who have lived in the home since buying it at The Block auction in 2014, are moving to be closer to family.

“They’ve absolutely loved it here,” Mr Cahill said. “It’s got a lot of house-like qualities with a garage and enormous storage cage underneath and everything was just finished so well from the flow of the indoor/outdoor living area through to the finishes, fittings and appliances.”

The residence also boasts private laneway access, high ceilings, expanses of original warehouse windows, oak parquetry floors and a gourmet kitchen with four Bosch ovens and a butler’s pantry.

Mr Cahill said the sellers had barely made any changes to the property since they bought it.

“There wasn’t really anything that was needed,” he said. “If you walked in there now you would think it was a year old. It’s been kept in immaculate order – in fact, the whole block is in immaculate order.”

When the residence was first sold on-air as part of The Block finale, several agents were shocked that it did not attract higher bids.

Biggin & Scott’s Russell Cambridge, who auctioned the apartment back then, said by the time the property was on offer – fourth in the order – the pool of buyers had been depleted.

“There were three main buyers who were really hot,” he said at the time.

“The reserve on mine was too high and, more than that, the spread (of buyers) and the order mattered here because of the variation in sizes and styles.

“I think ours sold cheaply. The depth of buyers wasn’t there. In the real world, I would have passed mine in and got $1.5 million or better.”

The victors of the 2014 season, Sydney brothers Simon and Shannon Vos, walked away with $335,000 – plus a $100,000 winners’ bonus – after selling their apartment for $1.9 million.

Darren and Dea appeared twice on The Block. After the disappointing $10,000 profit from The Glasshouse season, the couple appeared on The Block Triple Threat the following year, where they flipped their fortune and won the entire season, bagging themselves $935,000.