Non-essential rooms have to be perfect to add value: The Block's Greville Pabst's room reviews

Last night’s buyers’ advocates on The Block Triple Threat saw three rooms that have the potential to add immense value to the contestants’ properties: a laundry, a powder room, and a wine cellar.

Here is a rundown of the scores the Buyers’ Jury gave the Blockheads last night:

• Charlotte and Josh – 20.5
• Tim and Anastasia – 25.5
• Ayden and Jess – 23
• Dea and Daz – 26.5

The rooms that we saw in last night’s episode are non-essential spaces – not every property has them. But my biggest advice is that if they are to be included, they need to be perfect in order to add real value to the property.

The wine cellar is a Block first, which meant that not everybody got it right.

When including a wine cellar, it’s important to know what buyers are looking for and more importantly, what functionally constitutes a wine cellar. Dea and Daz’s outstanding cellar (pictured above) entices buyers with its vast stock, which is enough to draw a potential buyer in. However, Tim and Anastasia stand out with this room because they were the only ones to include temperature control systems – making it a proper wine cellar that will not be compromised by the South Yarra demographic.

Buyer's advocate judges Greville Pabst (left) and Frank Valentic (right) in Dea and Daz's cellar.

While laundry facilities can be found in most properties, a private laundry room is not always included in every home. The rest of the buyers’ jury and myself agreed that a laundry is at the very least, a functional room.

This means they need to have space. Charlotte & Josh as well as Daz & Dea could have greatly benefitted if they took priority over space across all three of their rooms, rather than including an extra storage space. When thinking about putting in extra storage areas, Blockheads need to ensure that their rooms have enough space first.

Additionally, powder rooms are extra bathrooms that can be highly sought after as well as adding to the luxe of a property. What the contestants across the board managed to do well is that they ensured their powder rooms flowed on from the rest of their previous finished bathrooms. Buyers appreciate continuity between the rooms’ styles, this is especially important.

As finishes are particularly critical to buyers, contestants need to be aware that laminates are not going to cut it for the South Yarra demographic.

All in all it was agreed that these non-essential rooms might tip a potential buyer over to be the last bidder standing. 

GREVILLE PABST is CEO and director of WBP Property Group.

Feature photo courtesy of Channel 9.