One month on: What is happening with the unsold House 4 on The Block?

It’s been over a month since the five Block properties in Gisborne were auctioned, and Dylan and Jenny’s House 4 remains the final property for sale for anyone wanting to get the last chance at a slice of Block history.

Throughout the series, judges praised the tradie couple for their high level of workmanship and their overall approach to The Block project.

“I honestly believe our house was the best house because we’re such attention-to-detail type people, and it was done so well,” Jenny Heath explains.

• Take your own virtual private tour of Dylan and Jenny’s House 4.

Contestants Omar and Oz broke show records when their property sold for $5.6 million – more than $1.5 million above the reserve price.

“[Their reserve] just got blown out of the water. Which is an awesome result for the boys, but then I think it kind of left all the other buyers a bit scared,” Jenny says. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh, we can’t afford $5 million’. So, I feel like people that were keen on our house, it kind of spooked them a bit.”

Business owner and property investor Adrian Portelli initially bid on House 5, battling it out with serial Block buyer Danny Wallis, who eventually won the keys. Portelli went on to purchase Ankur and Sharon’s House 3 in post-auction negotiations. Portelli, who bought the house to raffle off to one lucky person through the Portelli Group website, says he was impressed by the workmanship on The Block properties and keen to secure one.

“If you actually go to the houses and see the actual scale, I don’t think the cameras and the footage do it justice.”

“And it’s in Gisborne. Gisborne’s growing well … Land’s going for a fair bit. So, you get 10 acres of land and, you know, all the goodies that come with it … It’s 45 minutes from Melbourne CBD, but you feel like it’s country.”

Someone who knows the benefits of making a tree change is The Block creator Julian Cress, who moved to the Gisborne area about 18 months ago with his family.

“It’s a stunning place to live, a great community; it’s really on the up and up,” he says. “There are so many new properties being built in the area and so many people moving to the area – I think the future of this part of the world is very bright.”

With House 4’s price guide at $4.08 million to $4.4 million, buyers will get a lot of bang for their buck.

“These are houses that cost over $6.5 million dollars when you take in the build costs and land value, and the price guide is low $4 million, House 4 is literally a bargain,” Cress says.

“With so many of the features that we put into them – there’s a quarter-of-a-million-dollar solar-power battery system in each house. They’re future-proofed, which is something that you rarely get when you’re looking at country property.”

In another boon for prospective buyers, each Block property comes fully furnished – right down to the original artwork, top-of-the-range appliances and soft furnishings, which makes them appealing to investors, too.

Investors can claim tax deductions through the depreciating value of the properties due to wear and tear over time.

According to BMT Tax Depreciation, the contestants have spent upwards of $5 million in construction costs per property.

Sharon and Ankur from House 3 generated the largest amount of tax depreciation deductions at a BMT estimate of $5,840,166, with the other four properties not far behind.

“The house is worth so much more than what it will go for, which is crazy,” Jenny adds. “We’ve got the top-of-the-range everything in that house.”

Jenny says she wishes she could buy the house herself and loves it for its open living spaces and the “beautiful” kitchen.

“I literally love every room in the house … It just flows so nicely … The 40-metre hallway, the breezeway,” she says. “And the views! The views of the Macedon Ranges and Red Rock over the way. Honestly, there’s a good view from every single room.”

Cress adds: “House 4 was also the house that all the contestants wanted because of its access to the views going both ways, and its position on the block, so it’s interesting that that’s the one that’s still available because that’s the one that everyone wanted.”

As well as having the biggest deck ever featured on The Block, House 4 also occupies the biggest block of land, at around 5.3 hectares.

Dylan and Jenny made the most of their extra space by adding an inground heated pool, wood-fired hot tub, pizza oven, multiple fire pits, tiered veggie patch (complete with perennial veggies and an orchard of fruit trees) and even a tiny house.

“That was our game-changer. I love the thought of a tiny house … if you want to Airbnb it out, it’s an extra source of income.”

Jenny adds that the entire house is incredibly versatile.  

“Family home, entertaining, Airbnb, it would even be a great wedding venue. I just feel like it could be used for so many different things. It’s such a good house,” she says.

SOLD - $3,900,000

225 McGeorge Road, Gisborne VIC 3437

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Despite this, Jenny and Dylan have found themselves in the situation that many sellers are facing: the length of days on market is a telltale sign of a cooling property market. Jenny admits that while it’s all been a little stressful, she remains confident that they’ll soon find a buyer.

In the meantime, she and Dylan have hit the ground running. They’re currently back on the Gold Coast, feverishly completing another house that they will hopefully sell ahead of their wedding in March next year. 

“It’s only a matter of when [before the house sells]. It’s a really great opportunity for anyone who’s looking for an investment, or a place to relocate their family, or one hell of a weekender,” Cress says.