The winning apartment from the 2019 season of The Block NZ passed in at auction this week and is now back on the market with an asking price of $1.695 million.
The apartment at 3/516 New North Road, in Kingsland, Auckland, sold for $1.34m in The Block’s live auction finale three years ago, handing contestants Lisa Ridout and Chris “Ribz” Gordon a $150,000 win. It was the only property to turn a profit on the night.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the former Kingsland fire station went under the hammer at a Bayleys auction yesterday but was one of several to pass in.
When the property was on the show it attracted the judges’ negative attention, especially over the use of colour, but the original listing highlighted much that will be popular with today’s buyers: a home automation system, SmartTouch paint and an Eden Park outlook.
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The property’s show-stopping black kitchen, dramatic colours, spa-style bathroom and industrial beams are billed as “King of Cool” in the listing. As well as the views of Eden Park, buyers will also get the option of an extensive furniture package in the turn-key apartment.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment has a striking design and generous decks. Photo / Supplied
Lisa and Ribz on the night of the 2019 The Block NZ finale. Photo / Supplied
The listing came just weeks after the 2022 season of The Block NZ wrapped up which ended in heartbreak for many of the contestants. Just two of the new-build homes in Orewa, on the northern fringes of Auckland, sold above their reserve.
However, in a headline-grabbing twist, contestants Stacy and Adam, who also missed out on selling their fire station apartment in 2019, bought their Orewa property for themselves. They paid $1.148m in a move they called the “perfect redemption”.
Despite clashes with the judges, The Block NZ season eight winners Lisa and Ribz stuck to their guns over their colour and decor choices. Photo / Supplied
Other Block resellers have benefited from the dramatic change in Auckland’s house prices since the 2019 season.
One of the biggest re-sale gains in recent times was a three-bedroom townhouse from season three of The Block NZ, on Newell Street in Point Chevalier. That townhouse sold under the hammer in July last year for $3.182m, a whopping $1.712m more than second-place contestants Maree and James – who also placed second in this year’s The Block NZ Redemption season – had sold it for in the 2014 season’s auction.
Two other fire station apartments have also resold, one in October 2020, the other in July 2021.
Last year, Stacy and Adam’s ground floor apartment resold at the peak of the market for $2.1m, yielding the owners – former Block producer and television supremo Julie Christie and her daughter – a tidy $620,000 profit in two years.
