The Block 2026 contestants celebrate at the finale. Picture: Channel 9
In the final days before The Block 2026 auctions producers were making desperate last minute calls to avert another disastrous repeat of last year’s Daylesford catastrophe.
It follows revelations from stars of a wild season that included an unseen moment where a female contestant was accidentally caught topless by a male competitor.
Arguably the biggest shock came when one of the Mt Eliza homes had its position in the auction line up altered in a move that happened without some contestants being consulted, as part of a trick to leave underbidders in the room to manipulate those still waiting to bid.
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During The Block’s 2025 season in Daylesford, Victoria, two of the residences failed to sell on auction day.
This left contestants without any prize money, although the homes changed hands for $2.15m about nine months later.
For 2026, it’s understood the show considered significantly higher prices than the eventual $3.6m-$3.9m ranges, with sources indicating initial plans would have had the homes quoted at $4m-$4.4m.
But producers were talked out of it by market advisers, avoiding what would have been a brutal mistake for contestants.
Block contestants Courtney and Sev, who are best friends, as well as a construction site manager and commercial interior designer, respectively. Picture: Channel 9
Inside Courtney and Sev’s winning house.
Had reserves come in at even $4m two of the home’s would have failed outright — and a third that came in at exactly $4m would have left zero profit for the contestants who renovated it.
Even with the more generous $3.45m reserves, at least one home was still facing disaster just ahead of the auction.
House 2, renovated by Gold Coast pair Channel and Wyatt, had so few buyers showing interest with it a call was made to move it further back in the list and to bring forward House 4.
Serial Block bidder Danny Wallis and Scott Cam ahead of the auctions. Picture: Channel 9
House 1: Adam and Jolene — $3.905m sale, $505,000 profit (including $50,000 reserve cut);
House 2: Chantel and Wyatt — $3.817m sale, $367,000 profit
House 3: Lisa and Rosco — $4m sale, $550,000 profit;
House 4: Courtney and Sev — $4.72m sale, $1.27m profit, plus $100,000 winners prize;
House 5: Rick and Tayla — $4.355m sale, $955,000 profit (including $50,000 reserve cut).
Courtney and Sev’s terrace and pool area was described as a perfect for a “party house” by the show’s judges.
That residence ended up being second on the auction block with House 2 being moved to fourth on the running order.
House 4, renovated by Courtney and Sevilay (Sev), had significantly more buyers expected to pursue it — and was moved to a position earlier in the line-up in the hopes their buyers would stick around and potentially help to inflate the price paid for the Queenslanders’ property.
Courtney and Sev wound up winning the show, despite their auction being brought forward in the order.
Every team walked away with money this year. Picture: Channel 9
But with their underbidders still lingering in the room as potential competitors, many who had been seen bidding for Courtney and Sev’s place, other buyers intending to pursue Channel and Wyatt’s property might well have bid more aggressively than they would have if the auction order had not changed.
Sources attached to this year’s season also revealed there might have been a reason for Channel and Wyatt’s poor connection with buyers: the pair were barely seen at their open for inspections.
This publication is not sure how frequently they attended, but they were considered significantly less visible than others by parties who attended The Block’s open homes.
Most other pairings were in attendance as often as possible when prospective buyers came to visit, as a way to help build rapport with them.
If true, the Gold Coast couple’s absence potentially cost them significantly as they secured the lowest sale price of any contestant at auction — and the smallest prize.
Chantel and Wyatt, both aged in their thirties, are from the Gold Coast.
Many of the homebuyers also had to outbid The Block regular Danny Wallis, who subsequently revealed he was only prepared to buy the homes a modest level above the reserve prices as he sought another opportunity for a significant tax benefit from the homes’ up to $6m depreciation schedules.
“I would’ve bought if I’d got the price I wanted,” Mr Wallis said after all the auctions concluded.
OBrien Real Estate’s Stavros Ambatzidis, who had Courtney and Sev’s listing with colleague Kayn Luff, said 17 bidders registered for the auction which won the season with a $4.72m sold price.
Mr Ambatzidis said that in addition to Courtney and Sev’s great renovation and attention to detail, his team had several strategy meetings before the auction which helped propel the property’s winning result.
Shelley Craft and Scott Cam will now turn to season 2027. Picture: Channel 9
He hosted multiple pre-auction events such as getting Viridian Financial Group employees to check out the home and discuss its significant depreciation schedule with some of their high net-worth clients.
A McLaren night saw owners of the supercars bring their vehicles to the house for people to check out, which resulted in two potential purchasers coming out of the woodwork.
Separately, 18 families connected with the children’s cancer charity My Room looked through the house, along with the mother of Formula One competitor Oscar Piastri, Nicole Piastri.
Both she and her son are involved with the charity – but Mr Ambatzidis noted Ms Piastri was not interested in buying the abode.
Paramedic Lisa and Rosco, an oil and gas logistics expert, hail from Perth.
All this resulted in a large number of buyers which Mr Ambatzidis said brought about the discussions related to changing the auction day’s order of events, and “flipping the script” on the traditional numeral order of Block auctions.
“We were supposed to go fourth but there was a meeting where it was said House 4 should not go fourth,” he said.
“If we went up the line a bit, we would help the other homes as we had a bigger buyer pool.”
Following the auctions, Sev and Courtney said they felt their win had “validated” some of their design decisions, a few of which raised eyebrows among fans and competitors.
“Obviously, we took a lot of risks during the show and everyone thought we were nuts when we picked house four over the three uptowns,” they said.
Houses 1, 2, and 3, are situated in the site’s higher section, known as ‘uptown’, and came with bay views.
A bathroom from Lisa and Rosco’s renovation.
After the auctions, Lisa and Rosco shared their most unusual experience from the season: fellow competitor Rick walking in when Lisa was getting changed and accidentally seeing her topless, while they lived in a sharehouse off-site.
Lisa revealed that the prize money would help them finish their own home’s renovation with the property currently having no roof.
Separately, industry sources shared that a Mt Eliza local whose lives near The Block site played loud music throughout auction day, and had also done so when the homes were open for inspection.
AC/DC members Mark Evans, Bon Scott, Phil Rudd, Malcolm Young and Angus Young, whose song made an appearance during one of auctions. Picture: Gary Graham.
An AC/DC song was blaring so loudly when the first auction was about to start that producers shut the doors – although some attendees simply thought the producers were playing the tunes to create a festive atmosphere.
There’s even rumours the neighbour attempted to gain access to The Block property during filming, prior to auction day, and that police were called to deal with him.
“So apparently that’s been a drama from day one.” the source said.
Danny Wallis is a multi-millionaire Victorian entrepreneur that’s become a staple in Australian households ever since he became a prominent bidder on the show. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.
They also shared that long-time Block buyer Danny Wallis allegedly took a dislike to one particular auctioneer mid-auction and didn’t proceed with higher bids, for this reason.
“The auctioneer said something to him that he didn’t like and he walked out, like he has done in some past seasons’ auctions,” the Block insider said.
However, they said that auctioneer had “done a fantastic job” and gotten a great result.
Aqua Real Estate’s Michelle Skoglund, who had the listing for Adam and Jolene’s house, sold a separate Mt Eliza property – not connected with the show – for more than $4.2m on Saturday.
In the weeks before the auction she also notched a $12m result that very nearly broke the suburb’s house price record.
Ms Skoglund observed that coming into summer was a great selling period, especially for homes near the beach, and that many buyers were powering ahead with purchases.
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