The Block 2021: Producers buy site in Bronte Court, Hampton

Producers behind Channel Nine’s long-running reality renovation show The Block have shelled out more than $3 million for a home in Melbourne’s bayside Hampton owned by buyers’ advocate Nicole Jacobs.

Just weeks before this year’s series finale in neighbouring Brighton, title records reveal that MicJoy Pty Ltd purchased Ms Jacobs’ property, renovated last year by The Block’s architect Julian Brenchley, in June for $3,025,000.

Executive producer Julian Cress has made no secret of a suburban cul-de-sac setting for next year’s season, the show’s 17th.

“An idea of how to make the show that we’ve always dreamed of, but have never been able to find a property that’s suitable, that fits the build, doing it the way that we wanted to do it,” he told 9Entertainment earlier this year.

“We’re really excited about next year, because we have found a property that actually meets that brief that we’ve set ourselves, it’s something that we’ve never done before and we’re very excited about it.”

Mr Cress said on Friday that while he could confirm the Hampton location for season 2021, he would not reveal the plans for the properties so as to maintain the surprise for the contestants.

Ms Jacobs told Domain on Friday that Mr Brenchley approached her with the proposal to sell her home earlier this year.

“We [husband Zac and I] didn’t get to do what we wanted to do to it … now there’s an opportunity to do that somewhere else,” Ms Jacobs said.

“Life is to be lived and when opportunities come along, you assess … No one twisted my arm.

“One of the things I love about The Block  is they take homes and renovate them. I hope they’ll do something sympathetic to these homes.”

Ms Jacobs, whose property advocacy business is based in Brighton – which many believe should give her the edge for this year’s auctions, given its location – has bought 13 properties for clients in previous seasons.

She said she was excited to potentially purchase her old home for another family next year.

“I’ll probably have a mixed reaction, but at the end of the day, to bid on it for someone else will be amazing,” Ms Jacobs said.

“I want to see what they can achieve that we couldn’t.”

It is expected other homes in Bronte Court will sell to MicJoy over coming months, though none have yet settled, public title records show.

Ms Jacobs’ mid-century modernist renovation was recently completed. She bought the property in 2017 for $1.59 million, records show. 

The local Bayside council has attracted criticism over previous years over its failure to heritage list many similar properties in Hampton and Brighton. Ms Jacobs’ home is not heritage-listed.

The purchase of separate existing homes is a departure from many recent seasons of The Block. In mid-2019, MicJoy Pty Ltd paid $14.96 million for this season’s site in Brighton, and then bought abandoned homes for contestants to renovate. Previous seasons in St Kilda, South Yarra, Prahran, and Fishermans Bend involved the purchase of hotels, a backpackers’ hostel and old factories and contestants converting them into apartments.

The last existing, rather than recycled, properties for the show were in 2015’s Triple Threat season, when an entire apartment block was converted into four townhouses, but the last freestanding houses used on the show were back in the 2013 All Stars season, in Sydney’s Bondi.

This year’s properties, at 360 New Street, Brighton, are scheduled to go under the hammer next month. A virtual open for inspection will be held prior to auction, rather than a public event to comply with coronavirus restrictions around public gatherings.