The winning house on the last season of The Block NZ is for sale — just six months after the buyers moved in.
The house — renovated by Auckland couple Alice and Caleb Pearson — sold for $1.126 million during a televised auction that pitted two Bayleys real estate agents head-to-head to win the property for their clients.
Agent Sam Yeung tendered the winning bid for Angela Shen and Jun Ye. The couple who lost the auction ended up buying the house next door, renovated by contestants Alisa Keall-Grant and Koan Vette.
Shanghai-based Shen had asked New Zealand-based sister Stella Shen to find a home on the North Shore for her and her husband, before the birth of their first child in January.
They moved into the house around Christmas but after just six months the couple have moved back to China and the house goes to auction on July 17.
In an interview with the Herald on Sunday before her baby was born, Shen, a New Zealand citizen, said she loved the house for "its vintage feel" and "the outside garden".
In Shanghai, the couple had lived in an apartment.
Barfoot and Thompson agent Alice Du said she did not want people turning up to the open homes unless they were interested in buying.
"I didn't say it was The Block house because I didn't want people just coming to have a look," Du told the Herald on Sunday.
In her marketing, Du describes the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Eversleigh Rd in Belmont as "close to the heart of desirable Takapuna with its vibrant bars, cafes, beach and shopping precinct".
She said the square-front villa "oozes character but retains its original charm".
Alice and Caleb, who are due to have a baby boy this month, made a $181,000 profit when their house sold.
Under the rules, contestants kept everything above an agreed reserve price and the winners pocketed an additional $80,000.
Filming for the next season of The Block NZ is due to start in Pt Chevalier, Auckland.
Two 1930s bungalows have been removed from the Newell St site.