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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Capt who wrote (14650)	10/29/2003 11:00:36 AM
From: biometricgngboy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

'The Block' Cashes in as House Fix-Up Couples Clash By Miranda Maxwell, 10/28/2003 Reuters) - Make room "Big Brother," "Survivor" and "The Bachelor." Coming soon to your living room is "The Block." A clever mix of reality and lifestyle television, with more than a pinch of "Melrose Place" drama and bitchiness, "The Block" is the first Australian-created television format to be sold in Britain and the United States. The idea is simple. A television station buys a run-down apartment block and films a group of cutesy couples as they renovate identical apartments, with the winner snaring the highest price at auction. The final installment of the series aired in August was Australia's highest rating show in 15 years. It had property-mad Australians mesmerized and now offshore networks are clambering for the rights to produce similar programs. "It's phenomenal. It really struck a chord with all Australians. Renovating, relationships, real estate -- that's something that cuts into all of our lives," said Stuart Clark, director of lifestyle programming at the Nine Network. The show was a pretty safe bet for the network, as property prices continue to soar. In what one worried central banker has publicly called a "bubble," Australia's average house prices have doubled in eight years. Britain's largest commercial television channel ITV1 and Rupert Murdoch's U.S. Fox Network have commissioned local versions of the series, and executives at Nine say they are in negotiations with about 12 other countries. The show was also a bonanza for advertisers as the nation tuned in to see which couple won about A$250,000 ($172,000) in prize money and who paid what for each uniquely decorated apartment at public auction. The Australian version had manufacturers scrambling to give away everything from cars to frozen dinners to nab a product placement on the series. Set in the heart of Sydney's cosmopolitan Bondi Beach, it featured three blondes and five buffed blokes. Couple Gav and Wazza (Gavin and Warren) mainly wore just Y-front underpants and took time out to attend Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. REAL ESTATE "SURVIVOR" "The Block" is not all wallpapering, tiling and sanding. Like "Survivor," it taps into greed and tests stamina and strategy. Given a budget of just 40,000 Australian dollars each, the couples had 12 weeks to complete their apartments, which started with no kitchen, bathroom or back wall. One was riddled with termites. In a modern upstairs downstairs, Gav and Waz were repeatedly flooded by their neighbor above, a real-life plumber. "It's like a mental institution," sniped one couple about another's modern, stainless-steel kitchen. One episode was almost entirely devoted to a group stand-off as Fiona and Adam, dubbed "Ken and Barbie," asked to extend their bathroom. The threat was real -- they later won hands down at auction and clinched the $250,000. "They are extremely competitive people chasing a huge cash prize under the glare of 24-hour TV surveillance. And we forced them to be neighbors," said "The Block's" co-creator and supervising producer Julian Cress, who spent 10 years as producer at Australia's "60 Minutes" current affairs program. "The result is 12 weeks of human drama -- anger, sadness, joy, betrayal, triumph and despair. In other words, all the things that make great TV," Cress said. Part of "The Block's" charm is that it deviates from most renovating programs where cheerful experts whiz in and make it all look a breeze. "SLEDGEHAMMER PHIL" Endearingly incompetent Phil slams a sledgehammer against a wall and seems incapable of hanging anything straight. His apartment fetched the lowest price at auction -- but the show launched wife Amity's recording career with her CD going gold. The network paid 1.95 million Australian dollars for the four apartments at Bondi, then a further $400,000 to redo the wiring and foundations. The company took 2.38 million Australian dollars of the total 2.83 million recouped when the apartments were sold at auction. Thousands of people from all over Australia attended the auction, where the winning apartment fetched $751,000, well above the $595,000 reserve price. That's likely to translate easily to other countries such as Britain, where prices in London's residential property market have more than doubled since 1995. And the average price of homes in Britain is set to triple over the next 20 years, according to a study by the Center for Economics and Business Research. Nine was so happy with "The Block" it is now scouting for another property to buy for a new series. "The Block's" success even warranted a mention in parliament from Treasurer Peter Costello, who lamented a broadcast of him "warning people against overheated property markets" went unheeded. "I didn't rate nearly as well as 'The Block.' I suspect the optimism that 'The Block' was portraying was more powerful than my sobering counsel," Costello said. boston.com