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The Block faces falling house prices – and loses a billionaire buyer

The Block faces falling house prices – and loses a billionaire buyer

Contestants on this year's season of reality renovation TV show, The Block, face a falling regional Victorian property market and the loss of a key potential buyer.
This year, the series moved to the popular tourist town of Daylesford – known for its mineral springs, food and art culture, including the award-winning Lake House and artist David Bromley – located 90 minutes north-west of Melbourne. The show airs on Nine, owner of this masthead.
Daylesford's median house price fell 6.3 per cent over the year to June, reaching $820,000, according to Domain data.
The broader Hepburn Shire's median house price fell 11.3 per cent, to $687,500, in the same period.
Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the contestants will need to make 'strategic decisions' about how they sell their homes in a cooling regional Victorian market.
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This follows double-digit increases in house prices in 2021, she said.
'What the market did was hit into the cooling period which began in 2023, and it has escalated … we are seeing the falls accelerate and that has been consistent in 2024 and 2025,' she says.
'What we have now is the median house price in Daylesford is $820,000 … that is $100,000 lower than the record high which was mid-2022 … definitely it's cooling.
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