For those just after the important stuff from last night’s 2021 Block auctions, here we go:
1st: Mitch and Mark
2nd: Josh and Luke
3rd: Tanya and Vito
4th: Kirsty and Jesse
5th: Ronnie and Georgia
So yes, probably not what many expected and just goes to show, as ever, that it doesn’t really matter who the favourites are or how they behaved on the show, anything can happen on auction night and it did! Not to take away from Mitch and Mark though, who my money was on to win (them or Kirsty and Jesse anyway!). They deserved it.
Last night’s (always!) much-anticipated auction episode kicked off with Josh and Luke dropping Tanya right in it over the cheating scandal (all as guilty as each other really but it was her who took that photo of the production schedule and then pretended she’d been sent it by a tradie). Off to a gripping start!
Then came the reserves ($3.5m for everyone except Kirsty and Jesse who got $4.2m!). Everyone felt deflated and Ronnie and Georgia (in tears) changed their strategy, which would have put Kirsty and Jesse first and themselves second. After more consideration and discussion with their agent, in light of the high reserves, Ronnie and Georgia decided to pitch themselves first. Sadly, it ended up putting them at a disadvantage and they came last.
The contestants got together and discussed walking away over the too-high reserves as a point of principal. Meanwhile Scotty spoke to the powers that be and he and Shelley revealed the reserves were going to be reduced by $100k each. Ronnie and Georgia stuck with their second plan to put their house first at auction, followed by houses 2, 3, 4 and 5 in that order.
Here’s what went down…
House 1: Ronnie and Georgia: $3.4m reserve
Bids opened at $3m and ended at $3,696,000; a profit of $296k for the couple. This gave them a very surprising last place.
House 2: Mitch and Mark: $3.4m reserve
It was bought by Block regular Danny Wallis, an IT entrepreneur (and his extremely annoying bidding, I might add!) for $4,044,444 giving them a profit of $644,444 and first place (plus a bonus $100k for winning). I loved watching their emotion and utter shock as the bids went up and up and how they felt bad to have beaten their friends Ronnie and Georgia. BLESS! Well done boys!
House 3: Tanya and Vito: $3.4m reserve
With their $3.4m reserve, they sold (also to Danny Wallis) for $3.8m. A profit of 400k and beating Ronnie and Georgia who were, until then, in second place. I’ve got to say, I was surprised! This put them third overall.
House 4: Josh and Luke: $3.4m reserve
Bidding started at $3.2m and kept going! It went for $3,930,000 to Frank Valentic’s client, giving them a $530k profit, second place overall and many tears, Again, BLESS! Got to give it to them, for all their bad attitude towards the judges at times, they pulled off a serious result for rookies! Nobody saw that coming!
House 5: Kirsty and Jesse: $4.1 reserve
Bidding started at $3m (Danny Wallis) and was at $3.7m in less than a minute! And Danny got it in the end for $4,401,523, a profit of $301k for the couple. It was a hard watch and the bids were slow. But they were grateful and happy nonetheless!
Scotty declared Ronnie and Georgia the unsung heroes of the night for going first and giving everyone else the best chance to make money. There’s no doubt they would have made a lot more had they not gone first and it seem a little unfair, but that’s the nature of the game and they took it with good grace!
Until next year, folks!