Image: RealEstate.com.au / The Block/Channel 9
In a genius twist that embraces the greatest reality show trope of all, this year’s The Block teams have been thrown together in a share house. As if on-site dramas over sharing tradies weren’t enough, now we’ll get to see squabbles over bathrooms and the last prepackaged meal.
It’s sure to be good viewing, having five exhausted teams with very different personalities under one roof – and that’s exactly why Channel 9 did it. The genius move was explained by Adrian Swift who is head of unscripted at Nine at a media day: “We just thought that would be really funny,” said Adrian, who is one of the masterminds behind production.
Another stroke of genius was renting out the Mornington home of 2025 team Emma and Ben for the share house and filming location. Who better to keep the five teams under wraps than former contestants themselves?
“We decked [the house] out with a spa, a gymnasium… and all the teams had to do is share with eight other people,” Adrian shared. “That creates a really new and interesting dynamic for the show this year.”
NEED TO KNOW
- Former team Emma and Ben’s family home in Mornington was secured by Channel Nine for The Block 2026 contestants to stay in during filming.
- The Block teams stayed after the home was sold in January 2026 and filming commenced in March.
- It’s unconfirmed whether the buyer of Emma and Ben’s personal home was Channel 9 or they rented it from the home’s new owners during the settlement period.
- Emma and Ben’s Mornington home was renovated by the couple in Hamptons style before they put it up for sale.
The Block team Emma & Ben’s family home
Their former family home in Mornington (the one The Block 2026 teams stayed in) is not to be confused with the house they rented on the series in Daylesford. After failing to sell their Daylesford Block home at last year’s auctions, Emma and Ben made the decision to put their own Mornington home up for sale.
Emma and Ben originally purchased the Mornington home in 2022, when their plan for a “quick flip” turned into a “much bigger project,” the couple explained on Instagram, sharing that it took them “2 years longer than expected, but gosh did we have some fun and learn a lot along the way.” Emma and Ben also added that “this chapter hasn’t quite finished yet,” which left us rather curious.
With it now being revealed that Emma and Ben’s home is where this year’s teams lived and filmed, the cryptic message is making a lot more sense now.
The couple announced the sale of their home back in November 2025 during an interview with Mamamia. “We currently have our own home up for sale. We completed the renovation on this one just before we went on The Block. And to be honest, it’s like our dream home, but we’re just 10 years too early,” the couple told Mamamia.
“Our plan was to see how we go on The Block and if we made any money on the show, we would have loved to have stayed living there. However, we are still in limbo with The Block house, so we thought best to sell it and move on. Sad.”
The home, which has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, was listed between $1.75 and $1.925 million on realestate.com. The couple renovated the home in a Hamptons-inspired style that suits the local Mornington area.
They may not be staying in on-site caravans this year, but the Mornington share house is only around 10-20 minutes away from the Mount Eliza site where they filmed The Block 2026.
Yet with five teams to accommodate and only four bedrooms, will one team be left out in the cold? This could be an interesting additional layer to the twist which may even be to one team’s advantage.
When did The Block teams stay?
Emma and Ben’s Mornington home sold in January 2026. As the main bulk of filming for The Block took place from March onwards for three months, Channel 9 may have secured a special lease on the home for the contestants to stay there after it went under offer. Alternatively, they may have been the buyers of the home.
While Emma and Ben seemed to have had a successful journey on last year’s season of The Block, everything fell apart at the auctions, when their home passed in at $20,000 below its $2.99m reserve. It may not have sold yet, but Emma and Ben shared an update that the garden is growing beautifully.
Fortunately, their challenging end to the Block doesn’t seem to have put them off renovating a property in the future, with the couple telling Mamamia, “we would love to either do another renovation or a brand-new build. For either option, you’ll be seeing a lot more home reno love on our Ben and Em Instagram.”
We’re excited to see what the couple do next.
See inside Emma and Ben’s Mornington home
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