The Block 2026: All the houses and what they sold for

Did this surprising clue predict The Block 2026 winner?

Yes–it absolutely did. Courtney and Sev of House 4 had another reason to feel confident ahead of the auction day, after a surprising pattern emerged from previous seasons of The Block. As Mamamia reports, contestants who had won a major kitchen appliance package early in the competition have gone on to win the entire series.

In 2025, Britt and Taz won $175,000 worth of kitchen appliances before taking out the season. The same happened in 2022, when Omar and Oz secured a $250,000 kitchen upgrade, and in 2020, when Jimmy and Tam won $120,000 worth of Gaggenau appliances. All three teams went on to claim the top prize at auction.

While the kitchen prize hasn’t been offered every year, the pattern is certainly an interesting one. Courtney and Sev also secured the most room wins this season, eventually taking home the series win, too.

The Block 2026 reserve prices

In a surprise announcement on Today, The Block host Shelley Craft revealed that all five Mount Eliza homes will have an identical reserve price of $3.45 million when they go under the hammer.

The unexpected reveal came ahead of schedule, following changes to Victorian legislation requiring reserve prices to be disclosed before auction day. With each property carrying a price guide of $3.6 million to $3.9 million.

Where are The Block 2026 houses?

Set at 109 Old Mornington Road in Mount Eliza on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the sprawling 1.35 hectare site was reportedly purchased by Channel Nine for around $11 million. The location hosted five luxury homes for the 2026 season, marking one of the network’s biggest site investments to date. It was also the first Block ever to have water views.

The Block 2026 contestants and their houses

Five teams competed on The Block 2026 in Mount Eliza.

ADAM AND JOLENE, HOUSE ONE

2 Mackillop Place, Mount Eliza

Adam and Jolene are cattle station managers from South Australia. Adam is a qualified carpenter, while Jolene has experience in property management and renovation projects.

CHANTEL AND WYATT, HOUSE TWO

3 Mackillop Place, Mount Eliza

Chantel and Wyatt are from Queensland, with Chantel bringing building and construction experience to The Block. Wyatt is a former Australian Defence Force rifleman turned professional trainer.

LISA AND ROSCO, HOUSE THREE

4 Mackillop Place, Mount Eliza

Western Australians Lisa and Rosco entered the competition with less building experience than many of their fellow Blockheads. Lisa works as a paramedic and registered nurse, while Rosco works FIFO in the oil and gas industry.

COURTNEY AND SEV, HOUSE FOUR

9 Mackillop Place, Mount Eliza

Queenslanders Courtney and Sev have significant design and construction experience between them. Courtney works as a commercial construction site manager, while Sev is an interior designer.

RICK AND TAYLA, HOUSE FIVE

10 Mackillop Place, Mount Eliza

Victorian father-and-daughter duo Rick and Tayla are the local team this season, with Rick bringing extensive building experience. Rick is an experienced builder, while Tayla runs her own beauty business and works as a personal trainer.

Who is the Mount Eliza buyer?

Designing a beautiful home is one thing. Designing a home that someone is prepared to spend millions of dollars on is another. It’s a distinction The Block judge Darren Palmer was thinking about before he even stepped inside the five Mount Eliza homes. Ahead of the 2026 season, Palmer conducted his own analysis of 18 months of local property sales alongside Australian Bureau of Statistics Cencus data to better understand the market he would be judging in. That research would later form the basis of a masterclass he delivered to this years’ contestants.

“The masterclass was the research I did prior to starting The Block so I could understand the market properly in order to judge properly,” Darren told Home Beautiful.

His analysis, which Palmer stresses is approximate by nature, found owner occupancy in the area to be 86.9 per cent and identified four key groups shopping within Mount Eliza’s upper end: family upgraders, prestige downsizers, lifestyle sea-changers and inner-east relocators. There was, however, one group that date couldn’t account for.

“What the data didn’t show was the Block viewer cohort, as that cohort hasn’t been in Mount Eliza before – it travels with The Block from location to location,” Palmer says.

Family upgraders make up the largest share, typically professional couples seeking a turnkey four-or-five bedroom home with a pool, prestige kitchen, strong school access and no immediate work required.
Prestige downsizers are “right sizing” rather than simply downsizing, with views playing a major emotional role in their purchase. “Downsizers/right-sizers buy the view from the bedroom every morning,” Palmer says. Lifestyle sea-changers are drawn to architecture, design quality and a strong sense of identity. “Sea-changers respond to a design story,” he says. Finally, inner-east relocators are often looking for the prestige and polish of suburbs such as Toorak or Brighton at comparatively better value.

What Mount Eliza buyers actually want

Forget highly individual design. Palmer’s research found Mount Eliza’s strongest-performing homes tend to have broad appeal, with warm whites, pale oak, travertine and other natural finishes favoured over dark or more polarising schemes. “The date doesn’t support anything other than broad market appeal,” he says.

The local agents selling this year’s homes agree. House Three agent Mark Nunn says buyers around the $4 million mark want “understated quality, functionality and a home that feels effortless to live in,” while House Two agent Quentin McEwing says broader appeal ultimately means “more competition and ultimately higher sale price.”

Most importantly, buyers won’t compromise on things they can’t change. “They will forgive a particular colour of styling choice because that can be changed,” Nunn says. “What they don’t want to compromise on are things that are difficult or impossible to change – position, outlook, natural light, land, privacy and floorplan.”

How much are The Block 2026 houses worth?

All five homes have identical $3.6 million to $3.9 million price guides, more than double Mount Eliza’s approximately $1.64 million median house price.

But they’re not identical propositions. House One, Two and Three sit in the elevated ‘uptown’ precinct with the development’s strongest water views, while Houses Four and Five trade some of that outlook for larger outdoor spaces. House Five has the biggest allotment of all at approximately 1435 square metres.

Nunn backed House Three’s location, calling it “the best position on The Block,” with “the best view on The Block.”