The Block auctions this weekend were a supersonic display of drama, reality and raw emotion. Ironically, set against the backdrop of a nation going through an existential crisis.
A country that has seemingly made a rod for its own back in its success at creating the great Australian dream .
And in Victoria, once the most prosperous state in the nation, now on its knees with a shipwrecked economy, scar tissue from the pandemic, and house prices that had only just recovered and are now falling again .
With the highest property taxes in the country, Victoria has seen investors flee, alongside mum-and-dad owners selling due to crippling increases in land tax.
The state government’s recent changes mandating sellers publish their reserve seven days before auction felt like the nail in the coffin.
And then yesterday, in the most stagnant property market we’ve seen in decades, under the most draconian and rigid selling laws in the world, we saw five auctions that defied everything .
Time will tell whether the results become a bellwether that the market has passed the bottom. But those auctions, as a collective, were one for the ages.
After the auction bells rang and formalities were ticked off with every ‘i’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed (it would take a brazen agent not to, with the number of logo-clad CAV reps in attendance ), there weren’t cocky and bold investors throwing around cash like confetti.
Nor smug Boomers snapping up houses just because they could. And there wasn’t an alpha agent in sight.
Instead, viewers saw cracking auctions and contestants were r ewarded with market-defying results . Auctioneers seeking, not dominating. “Take your time” and “Of course, make another call”. And even “Sure, I’ll take a bid of $100.” It was a new reality.
We saw too the power and value of agents working the room . Metaphorically holding bidders’ hands as needed, disappearing when required and seamlessly slipping back in when there was hesitation. It was old school, and it was oddly fascinating to watch.
And the cherry on top: a raw Gen Z auctioneer who looked like one of my own teenagers’ mates. Cut from a different cloth but with a style and irreverence that brought a new kind of theatre.
Ryan King had the ability, the poise and the hunger of youth to steel himself to own the room. To respectfully meet the notoriously intimidating bidding style of Danny Wallis with a charm offensive tongue twister. To playfully cajole the buyers’ agents but not at their expense, to charm the crowd and even a cynical media room watching on in a sodden tent outside in the rain. It was joyous.
So too was the delight of seeing “real people” back buying at The Block . It meant there were no knockout bids, no Machiavellian moves.
These were methodical bidders. Considered. Diligent. Restrained.
Only a few momentary patterns of rapid-fire bidding, and then, what is fast becoming a signature of 2026, things slowed – a reminder of the winds blowing through the market.
It was The Block , but not as we know it. Oddly and unexpectedly, the cold market brought out the best in everyone, and the results defied everything.
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