What’s the new show replacing The Block NZ in 2023? Tara Ward explains.

It all starts now…or does it? 

Earlier this week Three announced the postponement of The Block NZ 2023, due to the “challenging” housing market. It’s no surprise after October’s heartbreaking Block NZ auctions, when only two of the four houses sold under the hammer and Chloe and Ben won the competition with a meagre $4000 profit.

“We’ve been monitoring the housing market very closely and due to the ongoing challenges that are occurring, we have made the tough but necessary decision to postpone the show to 2024 to give contestants and the show the best chance of success,” Three said in a press statement.

Does this mean I won’t get my annual dose of Peter “The Wolf” Wolfkamp? I’m howling. 

Every cloud has a silver lining, and this one comes in the shape of House Rules. Instead of The Block NZ, Three have commissioned a local version of the popular Australian renovation series, which is arguably a better reality format than The Block .

That’s a bold claim. Tell me more. 

House Rules is a reality competition that sees five teams of two people renovate each other’s homes. Each team already owns their house, albeit with a significant mortgage, and their property is in need of a makeover. Each week, one couple hands over the keys to their fellow competitors, who then renovate according to a specific set of rules chosen by the homeowner – the House Rules, of course.

In the space of just a few days, the interior of each home is transformed. The results are judged by a team of design experts and the home owners themselves, with scoring based on how well teams followed the brief. The next week, the renovations happen all over again at another team’s house, until all the homes have been renovated.

Then, the lowest scoring couples are eliminated and the remaining teams move on to transform house exteriors and gardens. In the final, the highest scoring pair wins the grand prize. In early Australian seasons the winners had their mortgage paid off, but in more recent years, they received a cash prize of $100,000.

So teams can cause complete chaos inside someone else’s house?

They have rules to follow, of course, but House Rules also provides two experts to guide the teams during their reno journey. There’s a build expert to advise on important building work, and an interior designer who steers teams away from decorating disasters.

Winner winner, chicken dinner. 

Call the PC police, because everyone’s a winner on House Rules. Your rundown house gets transformed, and then you help transform other rundown houses, so the feel-good factor is huge. Because a house gets made over every week, the show has a great pace, and it’s not driven by profit like The Block NZ. Teams don’t have to win the big prize to reap the rewards of their hard work.

I can feel the warm and fuzzies already, but where’s the drama?

House Rules has plenty of tension, mostly because teams hand over their biggest asset to a bunch of strangers who may not understand what a “Zen inspired retreat” really means. The tight time frame adds a ton of pressure, and things get hectic when you have 10 people renovating a confined space at once.

Personalities also come into play, as teams can choose to work together on shared spaces, or go rogue and do their own thing. Some teams become emotionally invested in the transformations, others haven’t renovated before, and there’s always a few terrible design ideas that miss the mark.

I’ll miss The Mark. Bring back Richardson. 

No. There’s no word on who will host House Rules NZ or who the judges will be, but this is a great opportunity for Three to showcase some new hosting talent, rather than simply offering up The Block NZ regulars in a different format.

Are you saying that House Rules NZ could be the reality show of 2023?

If Warner Brothers nails the casting, House Rules NZ could be the uplifting reality series of the year. This is a show that changes lives. While it’s limited to homeowners, it’s certainly more heartwarming to watch a diverse mix of hard-working families join together to make dreams come true than The Block NZ, where everything hinges on rich people buying expensive homes during a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis and a pandemic.

Also, the Australian version of House Rules travels around the country, and it’d be great for House Rules NZ to leave Auckland and travel to the regions of Aotearoa, where there are also a lot of sad houses needing makeovers.

Bring on 2023. Wait, have we said goodbye to Mark Richardson forever?

Don’t panic. The Block NZ will be back in 2024.

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