Shelley Craft has denied claims that The Block 2022 auctions were fake after a property expert suggested the drama-filled finale was all for publicity.

The 18th season saw just two of the made-over properties sell at auction, with the others failing to surpass the astronomical reserve prices of $4,080,000.

While one real estate expert recently claimed The Block buyers only purchased the contestants’ homes for an “ego boost”, Shelley said the sales are “as real as it gets”.

scott cam shelley craft
Shelley Craft has denied claims that The Block 2022 auctions were fake after a property expert suggested the drama-filled finale was all for publicity. Source: Nine.

“That’s the beauty of The Block being a reality TV show,” she told the Daily Mail Australia. “Once the train leaves the station, we really have to just sit back and watch like the rest of Australia, which is hard to do. Let me tell you.”

The Block co-host then weighed in on why viewers tend to see the same bidders — or buyer’s advocates — every year on auction day.

“As you can see… a lot of the potential buyers use buyer’s advocates because they don’t want to be on television,” Shelley said.

“So, we obviously had some frenzied bidders on House Five [Omar Slaimankhel and Oz Malik] this year. That’s what you need. You need at least you know two giants to go toe to toe to make a great auction.”

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She continued: “If you don’t have any other bidders in the room… It’s a very slow room, and it’s a very quiet room, as we saw in the other houses.”

Multimillionaire Danny Wallis nabbed THREE of The Block houses on November 5. Meanwhile, young entrepreneur Adrian Portelli purchased another in the ensuing days.

However, real estate guru Chris Bellesini doesn’t think they had the purest of intentions when buying the properties.

Real Estate Expert Chris Bellesini Says The Block Auctions Were All for Publicity

Chatting with Now to Love after the auctions, Chris said The Block producers “lost touch with reality” and set the Blockheads up for failure when setting the reserve prices.

According to Chris, the trio of homes sold on auction day were “at inflated prices” and didn’t reflect the reality of the property market.

He then suggested that The Block buyers only purchased properties on the day to feed into their public profiles.

“These sales weren’t real,” Chris admitted. “Three were sold to Danny for his ego and the fourth to Adrian to promote his business ventures.”

As such, the only remaining house — which belongs to Dylan Adams and Jenny Heath — will unlikely be sold unless its price is dropped well below the $4.08 million reserve.

“It just comes down to at what point in time will Channel Nine and the vendors [are] happy to cut their loses and accept a price well below what they originally wanted.”

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