The Block‘s Rick and Tayla have scored a major win heading into the 2026 auction.
The father-daughter duo won the final week on The Block by one point with their front yard and facade, scoring them $50,000 off their reserve price.
Speaking exclusively to New Idea, Tayla admits their lack of a budget might have actually helped them secure the huge win.
With the auction prices set at an eye-watering $3.45 million, the $50k reduction could give Rick and Tayla the upper hand, particularly given they have the largest plot.
While the reserves are expected to all be the same this year, despite the different plot sizes, Rick tells New Idea that he fears theirs would be much higher.
“Not knowing what the reserves were going to be, that $50k made a hell of a difference,” Rick says.
“Obviously, getting that $50k off the reserve was huge because going into it again, knowing quite well that our house could be one of the highest reserves with the size of the land we’ve got.”
Rick says that at the time of their win, they thought it would help bring their price down to the same as their rivals, giving it a better hope of selling at auction.
With two houses remaining unsold after the 2025 auction, Rick and Tayla admit they were fearful that their home would be priced the highest. Usually, a high price would give a seller extra profit, but in a group auction, it can make a house less favourable.
“It’s a bit unfair if one person’s house’s reserve is higher than the others,” Tayla tells us.
Rick also hints that he doesn’t want to see the same multi-million reserve prices that have featured on the show in recent years.
“Look, Channel Nine set the reserves, and I hope they’re a bit more sensible this year than in previous years,” he says.
However, this year, the reserves will sit even higher than 2025’s controversial $2.99 million reserve price.
Shelley Craft has announced that the reserves will be set at $3.45 million for all the houses, which should mean that Rick and Tayla’s will sit at $3.4million with their $50k win.
And that might not be the only advantage Rick and Tayla have ahead of auction day.
Sources recently told New Idea that Nine has been approving major post-filming renovations on the Mount Eliza homes before auction.
It has been claimed that Rick and Tayla’s home has undergone a back porch reconstruction that could have cost upwards of $200,000.
“These aren’t little jobs that contestants could have finished over a weekend. Some of the work is substantial, and when you’re dealing with multimillion-dollar properties, the costs can become enormous,” a TV insider told us.
The situation has threatened to reignite questions about fairness between the five teams, who are all hoping to win the 2026 auction.
“If one house needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra work and another doesn’t, how does that factor into the competition and the end result for the teams?” our insider added.
“Everyone wants the houses to look incredible and sell for as much as possible, but it’s completely fair that contestants might want to know exactly what has been spent and where.”
If Rick and Tayla win The Block 2026, they plan to invest the money into another home.
“Dad’s going to buy me a house,” Tayla reveals.
For Tayla’s sake, we hope that no more houses pass in at auction this year.
