Yahoo Lifestyle 
The Block's record-breaking finale: The good, the bad and the ugly
😃 The Good: Winners score the largest prize money ever
😔 The Bad: Couple forced to sell car after disappointing profit
😥 The Ugly: Two teams fail to sell at auction
After one of the most dramatic years yet, including a whole new ‘cheating scandal’ and a couple quitting the show after just 48 hours, season 18 of The Block has finally come to an end.
Sunday night’s highly-anticipated auctions resulted in enormous cheers and plenty of tears for the cast as one pair broke the record for the most amount of money won, and others failed to sell their houses at all.
Record-breaking prize money
Best mates Omar and Oz were declared the winners after selling their four-bedroom, 10-acre property for $5,666,666.66 - a record-breaking $1,586,666.66 above their reserve price.
The pair earned the largest sum any Blockheads have ever made over a reserve price in the show’s 18 seasons, and took home an additional $100,000 in prize money as the 2022 champions.
“We’re absolutely stoked that we took out the win this year – we had a plan and stuck to it,” Oz said about their victory, while Omar added, “It took a while to sink in, but it felt amazing to get a win after the hard work we put in.”
Leading up to the auction, Omar and Oz told Yahoo Lifestyle that they plan on donating a portion of their prize money to charity.
“We want to give back to the people, give back to the poor and give back to the people that are less fortunate,” Oz shared. “So it's not all about us. It's about everybody around us that need help too.”
MORE GOOD:
Couple forced to sell car after disappointing profit
While Omar and Oz became millionaires following the auction, other teams weren’t as lucky. Fan favourites Tom and Sarah-Jane - who were tipped to win the show on betting agency Sportsbet - sold their home for just $20,000.99 over their reserve price of $4.08 million.
The disappointing figure is the lowest profit a team has earned since season 9 in 2014 when both Michael & Carlene and Darren & Deanne walked away from the show with $10,000.
Tom and Sarah-Jane took to Instagram after the auction to reveal that they now plan on selling the $80,000 Ford Ranger they won on the show last month to try and earn extra money.
“Unfortunately for Tom we will sell the Ford and we will be walking away with 100k so no complaints from us,” they shared. “Even if we walked away with nothing we had the experience of a lifetime and something we can tell our grandkids about! Are we disappointed sure but nothing is ever guaranteed and at this point I think we’ll be fully over it by Tuesday.”
Meanwhile, latecomers Rachel and Ryan had to pass in their property at auction but managed to score $169,000.85 over their $4.08 million reserve price in a post-auction negotiation.
MORE BAD:
Disappointing auctions
For the first time in 11 years since season 4’s disappointing finale, two teams failed to sell their properties at auction.
Both Ankur and Sharon and Dylan and Jenny had to pass in their properties when they failed to attract a bidder over their $4.08 million reserve price, and as of 9pm Sunday night, they are still open to other offers to buy their homes.
“It was a bittersweet day,” host Scott Cam said in a statement. “As we’ve seen many times before, we’ll continue to negotiate with interested buyers to sell these homes, which are still on the market. I’m gunning for a positive result.”
The Block co-creator and executive producer Julian Cress added: “We’re in a very volatile real estate market and we’ve seen large and unexpected interest rate increases, including one just this week.
“While we had many registered bidders, clearly something has spooked the market. But we believe the properties are of incredible value and we think they will find new owners very soon, to deliver a well-deserved reward for our contestants’ hard work.”
MORE UGLY:
Never miss a thing. Sign up to Yahoo Lifestyle’s daily newsletter.
Or if you have a story idea, email us at lifestyle.tips@yahooinc.com.
