- New Zealand’s ‘last’ Block auction was cancelled due to late paperwork from Auckland Council.
- The four-bedroom house at 850D Beach Road will now be sold via a deadline sale.
- Warner Bros Discovery has paused The Block NZ, casting doubt on its future in New Zealand.
It was possibly New Zealand’s last ever Block auction - and it has been called off because of late paperwork.
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The four-bedroom house at 850D Beach Road, in Auckland’s Browns Bay, had been all set to sell under the hammer this week, but was forced to change tactics thanks to a hold-up by Auckland Council.
The property was one of four built for The Block NZ. Unfortunately, the reality TV show is on ice and facing a doubtful future, thanks to a change of strategy by TV3’s owners, Warner Bros Discovery.
850D Beach Road is now for sale with a deadline closing on December 3.
Mike Molloy, co-managing director of the company’s production offshoot, Warner Bros International Television Production Aotearoa NZ, told OneRoof that while the council had approved the subdivision, the final certificate for the record of title had not been issued so the auction could not go ahead.
The townhouse has an open-plan kitchen, with scullery, dining and living room. Photo / Supplied
The townhouse real estate agents are pitching the quality of the build and the sea views. Photo / Supplied
“You can’t put a condition like that on an auction. It has to be unconditional. It’s just been a slow process with council,” Molloy said.
Switching to a deadline sale means the sale can be conditional on the final title being issued.
Ray White agent Therese Leslie, who is marketing the property with colleague Jiang Kou, said that interest in the townhouse had been significant. “They’re finished to such a good quality. It’s been a site that people have been watching for a while,” she told OneRoof.
Molloy said the other three townhouses in the development were close to completion, one of which he hoped to get to market before Christmas.
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But whether or not he takes those to auction would depend on the advice he got from the listing agents.
Molloy said that a real auction was quite different from those seen during the 10 seasons of The Block NZ. “The whole TV thing, it was a spectacle so it’s not really comparable,” he told OneRoof.
The veteran producer doubted The Block NZ would make a return to Kiwi screens.
“It’s totally up to TV3 Warner. But I wouldn’t be confident of anything in this TV market, it’s just incredibly tough,” he said, adding that the production company still had shows such as dramas and David Lomas Investigates on its slate.
The Block’s producers bought the Browns Bay site in 2022 for $6.25m. The cost included the removal of the existing property and the construction of four townhouses to a shell state. Photo / Supplied
The cast of The Block NZ 2022. The show has now been axed. Photo / Warner Bros Discovery
The land for the four townhouses at 850 Beach Road was initially bought in April 2022 for the 2023 season of The Block NZ. The company paid $6.25 million for the homes to be completed to shell stage, ready for the competitors to come in and finish on the show.
But that season was paused after sale prices bombed in the 2022 season due to the tough property market. Then Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of TV3, canned production for 2024 and 2025.
Last month, Molloy declined to say how much it had cost to complete the development, nor what they might sell for.
“I’m not going to go into that. Let’s say it was expensive. We bought the site at the height of the market, that was what the market was at the time,” he said.
“[Everything is] fully paid for and there’s no talent doing work inside. None of that’s happening – it’s all done by the pros.”
- 850D Beach Road, Browns Bay, Auckland, has a deadline sale, closing December 3
