{"id":241892,"date":"2025-10-26T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241892\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:25:10","slug":"britt-and-taz-win-the-block-but-emma-and-ben-pass-in-as-do-han-and-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241892\/","title":{"rendered":"Britt and Taz win The Block, but Emma and Ben pass in, as do Han and Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auctioneer Damien Cooley sold the property at $3.41 million, a premium of $420,000 above the reserve. Britt and Taz also receive the $100,000 winner\u2019s cheque, for a total prize of $520,000.<\/p>\n

Taz said: \u201cWe\u2019re feeling very happy for what we\u2019ve done and the product we produced, but those blokes behind us, they actually put their heart and soul into the houses and we just don\u2019t think they got the rewards for effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Contestants<\/p>\n

Contestants watch on as the auctions unfold.Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

Britt described the result as \u201cbittersweet\u201d, although it was enough money to pay off their mortgage. \u201cWhy we went first [was] so everyone will make money and when that didn\u2019t happen, it destroys you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Taz, a Dharawal man, added: \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to set an example for young blackfellas coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said he had done this previously through football, working in prisons and policing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just now there\u2019s 6 million people watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s selling agent, Buxton Ballarat\u2019s Mark Nunn, said there were 11 registered bidders, most of them investors attracted to the generous depreciation schedules that might reduce tax payable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled with the result,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] if you are expecting five houses to sell on the same day in the same market in a regional [area], that is pretty unlikely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want the reserves to be that high, we tried to get them lower.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all contestants fared so well as Britt and Taz.<\/p>\n

Emma Shanahan and Ben Cox\u2019s home at 5 Cedar Lane drew an opening bid of $2.5 million.<\/p>\n

Within two bids the price rose to $2.9 million, but the stride shortened to $20,000 and then $10,000 bids by three parties.<\/p>\n

At $2.97 million, still $20,000 short of reserve, selling agent Aaron Hill of Ray White Sunbury took a call and the auction was paused.<\/p>\n

It resumed with a vendor bid of $3.1 million, calling for a rise of $100,000. With no further bids, the home passed in.<\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/p>\n

Emma Shanahan and Ben Cox\u2019s home at 5 Cedar Lane was passed in. Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

This avoids a situation where the house sells for only a small premium over reserve, and allows the agent to negotiate privately with interested parties.<\/p>\n

The teacher and engineer from Melbourne made the strategic decision on the fly, encouraged by the show\u2019s host, Scott Cam.<\/p>\n

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Ben said they thought if they could make about $100,000 in a post-auction sale, they would be \u201cstoked\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can\u2019t help but feel like you\u2019re losers on the finale of a great show,\u201d he said. \u201cPuts a bit of a dampener on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben said Portelli\u2019s bidding in recent years \u201chas just inflated prices and set that expectation a bit too high\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, Portelli, the founder of a subscription business offering discounts and giveaways, spent $15.03 million to buy all five houses at auction<\/a>, and even countered one rival\u2019s $2.5 million bid with a $3.5 million offer.<\/p>\n

On reserves, Emma said: \u201cUs and all our other neighbours thought that they were really high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pass-in strategy was in response to a surprise result for the second auction of the day, Robby Lippett and Mat Johnson\u2019s home at 1 Cedar Lane.<\/p>\n

The best friends from Adelaide, who are a barber and hairdresser, won as many room reveals as Britt and Taz did. But that did not translate into a bidding war.<\/p>\n

Bidding on the house began at $2.8 million and soon passed the $2.99 million reserve amid offers from three parties.<\/p>\n

As the race narrowed to two bidders \u2013 Valentic and Wallis \u2013 the price crept up in modest increments of $20,000 or less. Auctioneer Tom Panos sold the home to Wallis for $3,099,999.<\/p>\n

After three months of filming and an extended marketing campaign, Robby and Mat made $109,999, which they will split.<\/p>\n

\"Best<\/p>\n

Best friends Robby and Mat will split $109,000.10.Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the best outcome, but we had a great time,\u201d Mat said.<\/p>\n

Robby said: \u201cMat and I are very proud of what we have done. I think the only thing we\u2019re a bit disappointed with is the higher reserve than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they had buyer feedback at about $3 million, meaning a reserve close to that did not help.<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s agent, Kim McQueen of McQueen Real Estate, was pleased to sell on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price we got for the house was a great price for Daylesford homes, and given the state of the Daylesford market,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has been really slow for the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reserves were very, very high for these homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the two lacklustre results, Sonny and Alicia Aplin\u2019s agents, BigginScott, did not take chances on 2 Cedar Lane.<\/p>\n

The auction began with a vendor bid of $3.05 million. Valentic offered $3.06 million and with no further competition, the hammer fell.<\/p>\n

\"Sonny<\/p>\n

Sonny and Alicia take home $120,000.Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast couple, a plumber and a dental practice manager, won a $50,000 reduction on their reserve price to $2.94 million as a prize for their front yard \u2013 plus a car \u2013 and take home $120,000.<\/p>\n

After struggling to find favour with the judges and watching their neighbours\u2019 results, the couple was upbeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo regrets at all,\u201d Alicia said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been so fortunate today.\u201d<\/p>\n

They agreed the reserves were too high.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there [were] a lot of bidders there today who were probably prepped up to about $3 million, and no higher,\u201d Sonny said.<\/p>\n

A similar strategy unfolded at 4 Cedar Lane for Perth geologist Hannah Thetford and marketing and social media analyst Candice Wood, which was handled by Belle Property.<\/p>\n

A vendor bid of $3.1 million began proceedings, but no offers followed. The auction paused for discussions with potential buyers without success and the home passed in.<\/p>\n

Candice said the couple had learnt from the prior auctions.<\/p>\n

\"Han<\/p>\n

Han and Can watched on with nerves before their house was passed in.Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

\u201cIncredibly tough market, obviously a lot of people came here expecting to spend $3 [million], we needed a little bit more than that,\u201d Candice said.<\/p>\n

Hannah was hopeful the home would sell soon. \u201cSomeone will love it as much as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were 1762 homes scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne in the past week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 67.2 per cent from 1226 reported results throughout the week, while 134 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.<\/p>\n

The Block co-creator Julian Cress said the day was \u201cup and down\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Block\u2019s Scott Cam, pictured with Shelley Craft, said he was disappointed for those who didn\u2019t sell.Credit: Nine Entertainment<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that five houses have ever been auctioned before in one single day in Daylesford,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got no doubt that people are going to buy them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t even willing to accept the reserve price. We were putting in vendor bids above that because we wanted to protect our friends, these contestants, and make sure that they won some money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cress said the reserves were set by Channel Nine representatives.<\/p>\n

But he thought Britt and Taz\u2019s success proves the show was \u201calive and well\u201d. Filming will move to Mount Eliza, on Victoria\u2019s Mornington Peninsula, next year.<\/p>\n

Cam said he was disappointed for those who didn\u2019t sell, but said they still had an opportunity to find buyers post-auction.<\/p>\n

He thought the reserve pricing was \u201ca little bit high, but having said that, Britt and Taz\u2019s house sold for $420,000 over that reserve\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe room didn\u2019t have much money above 3 million bucks after that,\u201d he said. \u201cLast year you\u2019ve got to remember Adrian [Portelli] was a very unusual situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cam previously told this masthead<\/a> that Portelli had been asked \u201cpolitely\u201d not to turn up.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday, Cam said Portelli was the one who had decided not to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were happy for Adrian to buy a house, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were hoping he wouldn\u2019t buy five houses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auctioneer Damien Cooley sold the property at $3.41 million, a premium of $420,000 above the reserve. Britt and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-241892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}