Over two million Australians tuned-in to watch Elyse Knowles and Josh Barker win The Block this year.
It was hardly a surprise, season-long viewership making even Channel Ten’s reinvigorated Bachelorette franchise look like an abject failure by comparison.
But the real winner was the show’s Elsternwick filming site, stunning experts to be named ‘Melbourne’s most popular suburb of 2017,’ according to realestate.com.au.
‘The Block is a PR machine’: Elsternwick has shocked experts to become Melbourne’s ‘most popular suburb’ for new home buyers in 2017, after starring as the site for The Block 2017
Purely off the back of its role on Nine’s renovation juggernaut, the formerly overlooked town surged to the number one spot in end-of-year ratings.
Advantage Property Consulting director Frank Valentic informed the publication Elsternwick’s increased exposure ‘dramatically helped its appeal.’
To put that in perspective, Carlton, which experienced a 75% spike in average views in property listings in 2017, STILL couldn’t topple The Block’s home suburb.
Warrandye, the clear winner on 2016’s rankings, was up another 23%, but still got walloped to the tune of 15% by Elsternwick, which didn’t even make last year’s list.
The Block effect: Purely off the back of its role on Nine’s renovation juggernaut, the formerly overlooked town surged to the number one spot in end-of-year ratings
Upon seeing the figures (Elsternwick was up 33%) Valentic could only reason: ‘The Block is a PR machine.’
‘It’s not a massive suburb, so you probably would have had a lot of traffic from interstaters who wouldn’t have known where it was beforehand.’
Blame these guys! Warrandye, the clear winner on 2016’s rankings, was up another 23%, but still got walloped to the tune of 15% by Elsternwick, which didn’t even make last year’s list
Nerida Conisbee, the site’s chief economist said there was a clear swing towards ‘aspirational’ suburbs with median house prices over $1 million.
Professional model Elyse and her boyfriend Josh won The Block this season, netting $547,000 in winnings.
Their Elsternwick dream home sold for $3,067,000 to comedian Dave Hughes, a figure $1 million higher than the suburb’s 2017 median house price.
‘PR machine’: Upon seeing the figures (Elsternwick was up 33%) Advantage Property Consulting director Frank Valentic Valentic could only reason: ‘The Block is a PR machine’