Do The Block Contestants Get Paid? What They Really Earn

Yes, but not much. Contestants receive a small fee while filming, and the real money, if any, comes from selling the house above its reserve. Nine has never published the exact fee, so the figures below come from Nine’s casting notices and from what former contestants have said.

The weekly fee

Nine’s 2026 casting call said successful teams would be paid a nominal weekly fee to cover basic living costs during a 12-week filming period starting in February 2026. It did not say how much.

Former contestants have filled in the gap. Ash Milton, from the 2023 season, told Pedestrian.tv it was around $100 per person per day. His partner Leah has said the same figure and described it as barely covering their expenses while living in Melbourne. A 2022 contestant, Sarah-Jane, gave the same number on Instagram.

If $100 a day is right, it works out to roughly $8,400 per person across a 12-week shoot, as New Idea calculated. Treat that as an estimate, because Nine has not confirmed it.

The costs you still carry

The fee does not replace a normal income. Leah Milton pointed out that contestants still have to fund their lives back home, including mortgages, school fees and insurance, and that new teams need decent savings before they start.

The 2022 team Tom and Sarah-Jane put numbers on it. They said the daily stipend for the couple was about $200, and that once they paid $120 a day for their daughter’s daycare, it barely covered their bills and mortgage.

Where the real money comes from

The payoff is the profit above the reserve. Contestants keep whatever the house sells for over the reserve, and the team with the largest profit wins. We explain the mechanics in our guide to how The Block auction works.

This year every Mount Eliza house carries a $3.45 million reserve against price guides of $3.6 million to $3.9 million. For scale, a sale at the top of the guide would be about $450,000 over the reserve, before any sharing arrangements between the two people on a team. That is an illustration, not a prediction.

In earlier seasons the winning team also received a $100,000 bonus on top of its profit, according to Wikipedia’s summary of the format. Check the season’s rules, because prizes have changed over the years. This year, prize money won during the season comes off the reserve instead (see our reserve prices explainer).

Why a big sale does not guarantee a big payday

In 2022, Tom and Sarah-Jane sold their house for about $4.1 million but made only $20,000 over the reserve, according to The Brag. The reserve was high, so most of the sale price went to meeting it.

A house that does not sell, or sells at the reserve, earns no profit at all. Mediaweek reported that two of last year’s five Daylesford homes passed in on auction night. So a contestant can spend 12 weeks working, living away from home on a modest fee, and finish with only that fee.

What we can’t tell you

The exact fee. Nine has not published it.
How profits are taxed. That depends on each person’s circumstances. Ask the ATO or a registered tax adviser.
When winnings are paid. The timing has not been confirmed publicly.

See how this year’s teams fared on our live winners and results page, or meet them on the 2026 contestants page.

Sources

More guides: The Block Guides

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