NEED TO KNOW
- The Block 2026 is set in Mount Eliza, in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
- Channel Nine paid a reported $11 million for the entire development site and each house is expected to sell at the $5 million mark.
- Fans are convinced this selling price has set contestants up “to fail” after last year’s auction results.
- Buxton Real Estate’s Mark Nunn – one of the agents behind last year’s winning result – tells WHO why these concerns are wrong.
The Block 2026 is only a week into the competition, and the chaos has already begun. From house-sharing complaints and brief stitch-ups to insulating the wrong room entirely, audiences have already started to witness the “highs and lows” that the contestants teased before the season began.
This year, the competition is set in Victoria’s beautiful Mornington Peninsula, complete with water views, with Channel Nine paying a reported $11 million for the entire development site. Houses one, two, three, and four have block sizes of approximately 1,000 square metres, while House four sits at 1,435 square metres. Each house is expected to chase the $5 million mark.
While the show boasts about its stunning location, fans are convinced that contestants have been “set up to fail”, particularly after the low house sales from last year’s season.
Speaking to WHO, Buxton Real Estate’s Mark Nunn – one of the agents behind last year’s winning result and the representative for Lisa and Rosco this season – discussed why this season of contestants has every reason to be more optimistic than ever.
Mount Eliza homes priced three times the suburb’s median house cost
The Block fans have been sceptical of the show’s format over the last couple of years, particularly due to 2025’s low house sales: three houses from the 2025 season still need to be sold – House one by Emma and Ben, House two by Han and Can, and Sonny and Alicia’s property, which was sold during the auction but re-entered the active market.
As the show leans more into producing aspirational multi-million dollar homes, rather than the previous affordable home renovations from the show’s beginnings, viewers are convinced that this sets contestants up at a loss before the house is even done.
“The Block 2026 was filmed at 109 Old Mornington Rd, Mount Eliza, on a 1.35ha site secured by Nine for about $11m,” one observant fan explained online. “The location gives the show genuine Port Phillip Bay views and access to one of the Mornington Peninsula’s best-known family markets.
“But the expected $5m price hopes would put the Mount Eliza homes at about three times the suburb’s median house price, with PropTrack data showing the area had a $1.65m median for the year to January 2026.”
More fans continued to point out how this above-average multi-million dollar goal isn’t all too dissimilar to last year’s expectations, claiming that it’s unfair to contestants.
“The people last year were set up to fail,” one viewer commented online. “The fact that they were priced way above area norms shows this show is out of touch and has no real estate smarts.”
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‘People are interested in these houses’
However, Nunn revealed that he doesn’t think this year will repeat history.
“Right now, obviously the metropolitan market – it’s gone through some challenges – but regionally it’s actually holding up really quite well,” he explained. “So the market’s sort of in a couple of different streams really.
“But the interest we’re already getting – because we’re already starting to talk to buyers and stuff – these houses on Th Block this year are going to be pretty attractive.”
Nunn reassured that “early indications are that people are interested in these houses”.
“I think that it will go pretty well because of not just the product that they are – they’re beautiful houses – but the location in Mount Eliza, Mornington Peninsula, is a good one,” he said. “I’ve already had people reaching out to me about them and enquiring when they can get through and all those sorts of things, which is good to get early interest in it like that.”
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