NEWS

THE BLOCK’s Josh Barker and Elyse Knowles have won the reality TV renovation competition — all thanks to comedian Dave Hughes.

Hughes bought the couple’s five bedroom Regent Street property in Melbourne’s Elsternwick for $3.067 million at Saturday’s auction, the sale $447,000 over the $2.62 million reserve.

The young couple were the favourites to win the competition — and Hughesy’s eye-watering bid put them ahead of the other couples and scored them $100,000 in prizemoney.

The comedian had joked on his KIIS radio show in the lead-up to the auction that he’d like to purchase one of the properties on the reality show. But Josh and Elyse didn’t expect the star to snap up the house they had spent the last few months renovating.

“That’s life changing. Oh, breathe. I’m still like, ‘Oh, what happened?’,” Elyse said.

Host Scott Cam said Melbourne-based Hughes was a surprise bidder and only registered that morning.

“I don’t live too far away and I was driving past and I was thinking, ‘Gee, it’s a good spot, it’s a good house, it’s a good area. And now we own it,” Hughes said.

It’s been a lucrative year for Hughes, who recently jumped from KIIS to the Hit Network and left his gig hosting Channel Nine’s The Footy Show to front his own series on Network Ten. And it seems the casual purchase of a million dollar property was the perfect way to celebrate. It’s believed the comedian and his wife plan to use it as an investment property. FULL ARTICLE HERE