The Block 2023‘s Kyle and Leslie Cottone have weighed in on why Leah and Ash Milton‘s property is still yet to sell, over a month after auction day.
ICYMI: House Two was passed in at the November 4 auction, with recent reports claiming all interest in the Queensland couple’s renovation has disappeared.
Now, Leah and Ash’s co-stars have dished why they think a sale is struggling to go through.
Speaking to Yahoo! Lifestyle, Kyle admitted it would be “really difficult” to sell a house after The Block has finished airing.
“The Block adds another element to selling the house,” he explains. “It probably adds a lot of value onto the property because it’s on TV and it’s publicity for the person buying it.
“But I guess it’s a case of the cat’s out of the bag, so post-show everyone knows what it’s worth so they can start low-balling you.”
He added: “I don’t know if it’s Leah and Ash that make the final decision about what the house gets sold for, but if they want to stick to their guns and they’ve got a price in mind then let it go for as long as possible if you want to make what you want to make.”
The Block stars think Leah and Ash Milton’s house was ‘least appealing’ to mass market
While Kyle said he doesn’t think House Two is unsellable, he confessed he wasn’t surprised by the outcome on auction day.
“I kind of feel the auction results went how I felt like that might have gone, but not in terms of what everyone made,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like Leah and Ash shouldn’t have made money, but I also thought that maybe they had the least appealing house to the masses.” Ouch!
Leslie added that, as we saw on screen, Leah had a specific buyer in mind for her modern art-deco home.
“I take my hat off for trying something that people hadn’t seen before,” she said.
“I mean, when you look at Block houses in general over the years, they look like Block houses for the most part. It’s hard to get out of that when you have a budget and you’ve had sponsors and things like that, but the creativity is still there.
“But it is hard when you’re not in the bubble of The Block and all of that momentum that’s around it. I feel like it’s very difficult to come back after that and actually sell over your reserve.”
Steph and Gian Ottavio say the auction order contributed to House Two’s outcome
The Block 2023 winners Steph and Gian Ottavio told Yahoo! Lifestyle that the auction order definitely affected Leah and Ash’s sale.
“I think it’s a fantastic house and if there weren’t so many other houses being sold on the day before them, it might’ve been a different outcome,” Steph said.
“I think there is just maybe not that one person that is wanting it for that price at this point, but I don’t think it’s not going to sell, I think it will. And I definitely think a lot of their house not selling maybe came down to the order. Maybe if that house was second or third it could’ve sold.”
She added: “I don’t think it’s actually because it’s Leah and Ash’s house that it didn’t sell. It’s five auctions on the same day, it’s a lot.”
This comes after a source said Leah and Ash are concerned a team from the upcoming 2024 season will sell their house before them.
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