'A flop': Lisa and Ribz win $150,000 on The Block as three couples go home with nothing. Video / TV THREE
A third apartment on The Block NZ: Firehouse has sold following negotiations after the on-air auction last night.
A late-night close saw Stacy Heyman and Adam Middleton's Apartment 1 sell for $1,480,000, MediaWorks announced this morning.
The sale price met reserve, but failed to make any profit - meaning the couple walk away with nothing.
They are three out of four teams to go home with nothing after working hard on flipping the Auckland apartments for the past 12 weeks.
Wellington couple Lisa Ridout-Gordon and Christopher Gordon, from Apartment 2, were the only team to selling over the reserve price, banking $50,000, as well as $100,000 cash prize for the show win.
A property expert has claimed the apartments failed to generate a profit for contestants because the show's format demands they sell at auction.
OneRoof property commentator Ashley Church told The AM Show the programme was "a metaphor for the housing market".
"If you go back to season one, which was in 2012, the combined profits between the contestants was about $232,000. That was early in the last cycle of the property market. That ratcheted right up to 2017... between the contestants, they made $981,000. That was the peak of the cycle - it's come back since then."
Contestants on The Block NZ 2019. Photo / Supplied / MediaWorks
Church said auctions were a fantastic tool when the market was going well - but in this environment, that was much less likely to happen.
"You saw that last night with those four auctioneers pretty much extracting teeth trying to get offers out of people," he told The AM Show.
Church said the properties sold at good value - but less than what he expected.
"These things are premium apartments overlooking Eden Park so I don't think there was too much of an issue with the reserve price, I think it was simply a reflection of the fact there just isn't the competition at the moment to be in an auction room prepared to pay the price and competing with other people."
For contestants next year, Church advised them "to go in with the expectation that it's a life experience... and you may make a little bit of money, but don't go in with that being your major expectation".
Ethan Ordish and Sam Whatarangi with their Suzuki S-Cross Prestige. Photo / Supplied / MediaWorks
The four teams worked over the past three months to convert the former Kingsland fire station in central Auckland into apartments.
The property, 516 New North Rd, was bought by the show for $2.67m in 2017.
On The AM Show this morning, he said: "As a TV show, I think it was a roaring success. I don't think you should judge it on what happens in the auction room."
Richardson said the show had great storylines and was watched by a lot of people, so there was no reason not to continue it.
