Could this be the site of next season's The Block NZ renovations? Photo / Supplied
Could this be the site of next season's The Block NZ renovations? Photo / Supplied
The Block NZ contestants will be biting their nails during tomorrow night's TV finale as they auction off Orewa townhouses they've spent weeks styling and renovating - but could next year's contestants also be heading to north Auckland.
New documents show the TV programme's foreign-owned producers have gained permission tobuy a block of land coastal at Waiake on the North Shore, 18km north of the city centre.
The 1042sq m section on 850 Beach Rd overlooks the waters of Browns Bay and Rangitoto Island.
Intriguingly, the property sold at least four times in quick succession in the past year and a half.
That includes selling for $1.57 million in June 2021 and then for $2.58m in March this year.
Four large townhouse lots are planned for the site, according to real estate marketing material.
The United States-owned TV producers needed Overseas Investment Office approval because most foreign citizens and entities are not allowed to buy New Zealand homes.
"The applicant is a television production company that acquires residential land for the purpose of producing a television show," the OIO decision said.
"The land will be divested once the television production and related activities have concluded."
Speculation on the possible next site for The Block NZ comes as it enters its 11th season next year, with the programme still enjoying strong popularity.
The teams competing in The Block NZ: Redemption - will they be jumping for joy at the end of the show? Photo / Supplied
Warner Bros. International Television Production New Zealand Ltd - which also produces shows such as Bachelor NZ and The Masked Singer NZ - gained Overseas Investment Office approval for the land purchase on August 29.
Mike Molloy - co-managing director of the company - said it had no comment to make on plans for the property at this stage.
According to the OneRoof property website, the block of land has been bought and sold repeatedly over the past year.
It sold in June last year before then selling again in August, two months later, for $1.8m - or $235,000 more.
Four months after that in December, it sold again for $2.16m before selling in March this year for $2.58m.
The producers of the popular TV programme have bought this slice of land near Browns Bay. Photo / Supplied
Neighbours living next to the property said the original home from the site had recently been demolished and earthworks to prepare the land for development had started.
They believed there were plans for 3 or 4 units on site, but said they hadn't heard whether or not it was to be the setting for the next series of the The Block TV show.
News of the purchase comes as the current and 10th The Block NZ season concludes on Sunday with the Auction Grand Final special in which the four contestant teams auction off the townhouses they have been working on.
In reality, the auctions of the three-bedroom terrace houses in Orewa, 37km north of Auckland, were held more than a week ago, but the show has kept the results secret ahead of Sunday's finale episode.
The Block NZ 2021 winners, Tim and Arthur who scored $760,000 in winnings made up of $100000 prize money and $660,000 profit from their Point Chevalier house sale. Photo / Supplied
Real estate agents polled by OneRoof about what they thought the houses on Ringi Lane would sell for expected them to fetch about $1.3m under the hammer.
That's well short of the $2.825m that last year's winners, Tim and Arthur, got for their stand-alone townhouse in the inner-city Auckland suburb of Pt Chevalier.
The other three houses in that season of the show sold for between $2.745m and $2.692m - at the height of the booming housing market.
Reporter Martha and friends are in Minginui introducing us to their favourite four-legged neighbours, wild but friendly horses that have had free reign of the place since 1870.
