He’s viewed countless rooms, so what advice does this Block judge have for WA renovators?

3 hours ago 3

With house prices in Perth consistently pushing record highs, few would be surprised if home owners lucky enough to get in before the boom look at what they could do with their lot rather than battling the market to upsize.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal that in Western Australia, the total value of residential alteration and addition building jobs – including conversions – has been on a steady rise since 2020, going from about $47 million in July that year to just shy of $90 million in July 2025.

Whitefox chief executive Marty Fox is also one of the key judges on Nine’s The Block.

July’s figures were down from a high of $112 million in October 2024, while nationally the seasonally adjusted total value of alterations and additions sat around $1.2 billion, a monthly growth of 1.9 per cent.

Whitefox Real Estate chief executive Marty Fox said the appeal for renovations was clear.

“You save on selling costs. You save on stamp duty,” he said.

Fox is also one of the judges on renovation reality show The Block, aired on Nine, also the owner of this masthead, which makes him more suited than most to point out the trends and pitfalls renovators must be wary of.

“This Block, they’ve all got the exact same floor plan, yet they’re all getting scored differently,” he said.

“So that shows the emphasis on floor plan when you’re wanting to renovate and when you’re wanting to flip a home; you really have to produce the best floor plan for the market, the floor plan that creates the most amount of value.”

Fox spoke to this masthead during a visit to Perth last week and laid bare what he believed was behind the show’s making it to 21 seasons, what trends shaped the homes the contestants created, and what renovators could take away from this season.

“The great thing with The Block is that it’s Australia’s free home interior design show,” he said.

“I do personally prefer a very timeless design – raw materials, marbles and timbers, and let the furniture do the heavy lifting in terms of the colour palettes, as opposed to the hard surfaces.

“So I think the less trend-setting, I think the more successful it will be.

“But again, that’s for me flipping on the outside. If I’m part of a competition, you know, you also want to try and win rooms, and you want to impress judges, and you want to execute to a high standard, so you’ve got to cover multiple bases.”

But, back on the topic of renovations, Fox’s advice is clear: “For me, it’s all about floor plan, and then it’s about understanding who the end buyer will be.”

“I looked at a property … and it was advertised by the agent as a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, one car space apartment,” he said.

“Now the courtyard was big enough to fit a car in, which automatically would have meant that you could flip that with two car parks, it had an undercover area which was accessed by one of the bedrooms, and that area could have easily been turned into a second bathroom, and the dining room, which was massive, could have easily been turned into a third bedroom.

“So essentially, you’re buying a two-bed, one-bath, one-car, and you’re turning it into a three bed, two-bath, two-car.”