The Block could be heading for another auction flop in 2026 — with insiders warning that producers are setting contestants up to fail by again picking a quieter Victorian market for the next season.

Agents close to the show have revealed that filming for the 2026 series has been locked in for Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, sparking fears of a repeat of this year’s lacklustre auction results.

This year’s much hyped auctions failed to deliver the contestants with the kind of profits seen over previous seasons, with two of the five contestants failing to sell their properties at auction.

Even the winning contestants, WA cops Taz and Britt, walked away with a profit that was less than the last placed contestants on the 2024 season.

The property of contestants Han and Can failed to attract a bid at auction.

Contestants Han and Can failed to attract a single bid over their opening vendor bid of $3.1m.

One of the auctioneers on this year’s Block finale, Tom Panos, said part of the discrepancy between last season’s results and this year’s was that celebrity buyers like Adrian Portelli sat the auctions out.

This meant local market dynamics came into play and Channel 9’s decision to shoot in Daylesford, 120km northwest of Melbourne, was partly behind the middling sales results this year, Mr Panos said.

Daylesford is a property market that has struggled, with prices still an average of about 11 per cent lower than they were in 2022, PropTrack data shows.

Mr Panos, said producers could be repeating this mistake with their decision to film next year’s show in Mount Eliza, 62km south of Melbourne.

This market, like Daylesford, has prices that have yet to return to their 2022 peaks, with the typical cost of a house in Mount Eliza still about 10 per cent below what it was three years ago.

Auctioneer Tom Panos said renovators could get more profits in other locations outside regional Victoria. Picture: John Appleyard

Big spenders like Adrian Portelli (right) ensured huge results in previous seasons but their absence meant local market dynamics became more important on the 2025 season

Mr Panos also noted that Victoria in general, including Melbourne, has been one of the country’s weaker markets in recent times and is not where typical investors would be attempting house flips at the moment.

He added that the last season of The Block, shot in Phillip Island, could easily have gone the same way as this year’s results if it were not for businessman Adrian Portelli buying all five of the homes at inflated sums.

“There are two types of buyers on The Block,” Mr Panos said. “There are celebrity buyers looking for marketing investment and then there are normal buyers that we see every Saturday.

“That’s why we saw such a big disparity between prices in this season and last. There was no celebrity factor so we were left with far more rational decision making.”

Winning 2025 contestants Britt and Taz.

Mr Panos said The Block producers had a history of selecting filming locations in slower real estate markets over recent years, including regional Victorian markets far from Melbourne.

“The producers will have their own matrix for choosing locations but I think there is a higher chance that you would get crazy prices if you were in a marketplace with different dynamics and higher demand,” Mr Panos said.

“The owners of the show have to balance how much they pay for land upfront with (the return). The better the position, the higher they pay for land.

“Generally speaking, it costs about the same to do most renovation projects from one location to another. Labour and material costs will mostly be the same. The difference is that the upside is a lot higher in more competitive markets.”