This year’s winning Block team have spoken out, saying that despite their massive win they’re sad at how auction day panned out.

It was a brutal Block finale for several teams this year, the first in several seasons not to be dominated by super-rich serial Block buyer Adrian Portelli.

And Portelli twisted the knife last night, gloating on social media about the poor auction showing in his absence.

WA couple Britt and Taz won the season with an auction profit of $420,000, plus $100,000 prize money, taking them to $520,000.

That’s an impressive win, but incredibly, it’s less than last year’s fifth-placed team won at auction.

Tense times, but Britt and Taz emerged victorious.
The teams in spots two and three were a long way behind: Sonny and Alicia made $120,000 at auction, and Robby and Mat made $109,999.

And poor Em and Ben and Han and Can both watched on as their homes were passed in at auction – Han and Can’s failing to attract a single bid.

Taz said he had “mixed emotions” about their win in what is a very tough Block year.

“It’s phenomenal to walk away with a reward like this for all the hard work we have put into it. This is life-changing for us, it’s incredible. It’s our mortgage paid off,” he said.

“But it’s mixed emotions though as we really wanted everyone to walk away a winner and sell their houses.

Han and Can failed to attract a single bid – their house will stay on the market.
Host Scott Cam said that, while disappointing, this year’s Block auction results were at least “more realistic” compared to the inflated battles between the super-rich that have played out in recent years.

The Block’s EP Julian Cress said it had been a “bittersweet” day with the losses balancing out the wins.

“Auction day is hard for all of us. There is no other day of the year we wake up feeling physically ill when we go to work. We are worried sick because we get so close to our contestants over the months and we want everyone to do well,” he said.

We‘ve been liveblogging the finale below and will keep you updated this morning – check out all the results, as they aired:

This year’s winning team Britt and Taz might be more than half a million dollars richer – but they said in a radio interview today that they can’t help but feel sad about how the auctions played out for the rest of the teams.

“Although we came away with a win, it was really, really hard for us to be there and watch what was happening to the other teams. So we felt like we couldn’t really celebrate it 100% you know, because everyone else, it was really sad,” said Britt to Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren today.

But she insisted that their friends Ben and Em, one of two teams whose home was passed in at auction, hadn’t given up hope of making a profit now their home is on the market.

“We were with Ben and Em last night and the night before and true testament to them and how they are as people…they’re like ‘It’s not the end for us’, so they’re still staying positive,” she said.

Adrian Portelli may have stayed away from this year’s auctions (and gloated on social media about how they fared), but it seems he did keep one eye on proceedings.

Some eagle-eyed viewers noted that among those in the crowd at the auctions was a buyer’s agent that Portelli had used to purchase Block contestant Kristian and Mimi’s home last year (he was present at those auctions, but used buyer’s agents for some auctions so he could save the reveal that he’d purchased all of them until after the end). Was Portelli waiting to pounce on one of the houses?

Nine reported that the presence of the buyer’s agent, who did not make any bids, meant that Portelli did in fact have a presence on the day.

“In actual fact, ‘Adrian Portelli’ was in the room today, but he didn’t make any bids,” Scott Cam said.