The Block 2019: Did the buyers bag a bargain?

The five buyers of The Block houses at the former Oslo Hotel in Grey Street, St Kilda have bagged a bargain, industry experts say.

The price per square metre came in much cheaper than what the four buyers paid last year for the apartments in what was the Gatwick Hotel just around the corner in Fitzroy Street.

The highest price paid per square metre last year was $15,742 for Bianca and Carla’s penthouse, compared to $10,343 for Tess and Luke’s Grey Street terrace.

The lowest price for last season was Hans and Courtney’s level two apartment, which fetched $10,613 per square metre.

This year, Jesse and Mel’s bookend terrace attracted the lowest per square metre price at $9254.

The Oslo terraces are substantially bigger than any other Block properties – something the contestants were regularly reminded of on the show this year.

The average property size over the preceding 14 seasons was 160 square metres.

Buyers’ advocate Greville Pabst, who bought Jesse and Mel’s house on behalf of a professional couple for $3.378 million, called the purchase “great value”.

“You can’t buy a house of this size in St Kilda West or Albert Park, Middle Park, which is only really across the road [for the same price],” he said.

“This house there would be $5 million. So it’s really good value – particularly Mel and Jesse’s. I think it’s a really good buy.”

Some buyers were “a little bit concerned about being on Grey Street, a main road, and so forth,” he said.

“But the compensation is the quality of the house and the size of the house.”

How much did The Block houses sell for?

• Tess and Luke: 38B Grey Street sold for $3,620,000 (total prize money $730,000, including $100,000 winner’s cheque)
• El’ise and Matt: 38D Grey Street sold for $3,450,000 (prize money $460,000)
• Andy and Deb: 38C Grey Street sold for $3,420,000 (prize money $430,000)
• Jesse and Mel: 38E Grey Street sold for $3,378,000 (prize money $388,000)
• Mitch and Mark: 38A Grey Street sold for $3,374,000 (prize money $384,000)

Mr Pabst said empty-nesters had shown plenty of interest in the homes, because of their relatively affordable price tags.

Rick Horsley, SC, the buyer of the Tess and Luke’s terrace, said he was looking for just that.

“The bang for your buck is undeniable,” he said after the auction. “We live in Middle Park, and we wanted to downsize and this is an opportunity to downsize in financial terms, but still get a lot of space and a lot of facilities.”

Buyers’ advocate Nicole Jacobs, who bought Sara and Hayden Vale’s winning apartment last year at the Gatwick but did not purchase any of the Oslo terraces, said owner-occupiers had pushed bidding up this year.

“Tess and Luke’s resonated with so many people; home owners and investors and last year we only had two people that were home owners [bidding on Sara and Hayden],” she said.

“People coming to live in these drive those prices.”

Ms Jacobs noted that owner-occupiers bought Tess and Luke’s house and others who were unsuccessful were then keen bidders at El’ise and Matt’s, which was auctioned third.

Those two terraces sold for the highest prices on Saturday.

Buyers’ advocate Frank Valentic said the terraces were “monsters” offering “great value for money compared to the Gatwick”.

“I think the contestants should be happy because [Channel Nine] gave us some bloody nice reserves. So they’ll be really happy,” Mr Valentic said.

“They were very, very comfortable reserves, compared to where I thought they’d be. I thought they’d be at the top of the range, which they’ve been the past few series. So I think they were very, very kind to them.”