Couples hold their breath for The Block auction

Four homes in Cameron Street, Richmond, go under the hammer tonight at an invite-only auction at Fitzroy Town Hall.

The Block producers will be hoping the fickle Melbourne property market won’t result in the homes being passed in at auction. Melbourne vendors have been battered by weeks of uncertainty as the property market struggles with sliding house prices, slow sales, rising stock levels and sharemarket turmoil. Clearance rates have been hovering at 60 per cent.

Last year one of the four apartments in Vaucluse was passed in, later sold privately.

But after a much bigger series this year, it will be anti-climatic if any more are passed in. Nine is expecting ratings to surge well beyond 2 million viewers.

Editors will be working madly around the clock from tonight to ready the footage for tomorrow night’s 2 hr finale.

To win the series, a couple must make the most profit above the reserve, which was was set by independent valuers before construction began in April.

“Nothing the contestants do affects the reserve price they are set, which we set prior to work starting,” Producer Julian Cress said.

All four houses are expected to sell for between $800,000 and $950,000, but Josh and Jenna’s double-fronted Edwardian on a larger block of land, may top the other three.

NB: TV Tonight is blogging Live results tomorrow night from 6:30pm AEST.

Source: Herald Sun, The Age, Daily Telegraph