The Block host Scott Cam has been pushing the contestants all season.

The Block stars will need to sell their properties for more than double the suburb median if they hope to take home any cash at all.

Contestants on The Block make money at auction by keeping every dollar their houses sell for above the reserve price.

That challenge for season 22 couples just got harder after The Block host Shelley Craft revealed the huge reserve prices for every property when they go to auction in a matter of weeks.

The latest season of The Block is located in Mount Eliza on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Craft announced all five homes had the same reserve of $3,450,000, a whopping 100 per cent increase on Mount Eliza’s median home price of $1,720,000 according to realestate.com.au quarterly data.

The luxury homes will cost more than double the Mount Eliza median.

While The Block normally reveals price ranges for the homes each season, the reality juggernaut has never publicly announced reserve prices ahead of auction.

The huge change in 2026 is a result of sweeping legislation changes in Victoria that force sellers and real estate agents to disclose reserve pries at least seven days before auction.

The landmark changes were partially aimed at reducing underquoting in the real estate industry, an illegal act whereby a property is advertised at a far lower price than the realistic selling price.

Underquoting aims to attract more potential buyers in a bid to create artificial competition, that drives up the final sale price.

Chantel and Wyatt look shocked … Maybe someone just told them the reserve prices.

The Block’s decision to continue selecting Victorian sites means the series must also comply with the new guidelines which only came into effect this year.

Craft said staying tight-lipped about the reserves had been difficult but they needed to be made public.

“This is unknown territory for us to know what the reserves are,” Craft said.

“The fact that we have been advertising the properties at $3,600,000 to $3,900,000 – that’s what we are aiming for. This (the reserves) are our starting point, I’m hoping the auctioneers kick off from that.

“It’s all about transparency in the industry -the fact that when you go to an auction, you’ve done all your due diligence, you want the home so badly, your family has practically moved in, your kids have chosen their bedrooms, and then they go way, way over and these families do get disappointed.

Shelley Craft ahs revealed the reserve prices.

“If we knew what the reserve was going in we’d be ready to bid.”

Two couples from last year’s The Block series know all too well the struggle of meeting a huge reserve price in a market where homes are traditionally much lower in cost.

Couples Emma and Ben as well as Han and Can took home nothing when their Daylesford properties were passed in with huge reserves of $2,990,000 – more than $2 million above the suburb median of about $800,000 at the time.

Both homes from the disastrous 2025 season eventually sold 10 months after the season finale after being advertised for $400,000 below the initial reserve.