Last night’s The Block finale – dubbed ‘The Blocktagon’ – scored 1.8 million metro viewers according to Oztam Figures. However, it was the lowest grand final audience since 2010.
The winners were Newcastle couple Dean and Shay Paine whose winning apartment sold for $2.3 million – some $655,000 over the reserve price. The contestants all pocket the cash over the reserve in prize money while the Paines took home a further $100,000 in winner’s prize money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG2FjZFmVsU
This has led some in the media this morning to suggest the show is more evidence of a dangerously overheated Melbourne property market that could leave some buyers in real trouble.
Some pundits believe the buyer paid at least $300,000 too much for the Paine’s penthouse unit, and it worked out at $10,000 per square metre
Melbourne buying agent David Morrell was quoted in The AFR today as saying the apartment in the Melbourne inner-suburb of South Yarra was a bad buy.
“The property is at the worst intersection,” Morrell said. “It’s close to the Alfred Hospital but that means parking is a problem. Anyone who buys a Block apartment is in need of psychiatric help.
“Would I buy it? It has a petrol station view. The buyer paid a premium for it and will now spend the next few years getting over it,” Morrell said.
However, when it came to ratings for Nine it was all cream on top. Last night’s episode was the highest-rating program of November thus far and will probably fall second to Ten’s MasterChef finale (2.2 million viewers) as the most watch non-sport program of the year.
However, last night’s audience of 1.8 million was a long way shy of the renovation program’s peak in 2013 when just over three-million viewers tuned in.
When it came to social media mentions for last night’s episode, Meltwater has crunched the numbers and found that when it came to positive mentions, Caro and Kingi received the highest percentage (53.9 per cent) in comparison to the other teams. Shay and Dean actually came in at third place with 45.9 per cent of positive conversations, beaten by Luke and Ebony at 52.5 per cent.
Suzi and Vonnie, the team that came last overall, also received the least positive mentions at 41 per cent. Whitney and Andy on the other hand, takes the social media wooden spoon when it comes to the most negative conversations (28.3 per cent) about them and their renovated apartment.
There are already reports that the show will once again return in 2016 with host, Scott Cam, revealing to media earlier this week that show will most likely stay in Melbourne due to the difficult nature and planning arrangments of many Sydney councils.
