Another season of The Block is officially upon us, which means a new location, new Blockheads and new rules.
We know the drill – hopeful Aussies renovate a group of homes in the hopes of winning big.
However, there are a variety of twists this year, which have fans divided.
Find out all about them below.
What are the rules on The Block 2025?
So, what is new this season?
Identical homes
For the first time, the homes are being built from scratch. Not only that, but their floor plans are identical.
Which means, there is nowhere to hide when it comes to the finer details in each room.
“With interiors, it really comes down to a styling exercise, and our contestants have to think outside the box to catch the judges’ eye for a win,” Scott Cam said.
“They have to produce something spectacular from week one.”
This year, the homes offer 346 square metres of living space on more than 2,300 square metres of land.
“It was a very mixed reaction. We’ve got one team who has auditioned for seven years in a row, and I think they thought they were well-prepared for what might be coming… when they saw the steel frame standing there, all their plans would have been thrown out the window,” host Shelley Craft told Mamamia.
“To stand there and to see these skeletons of homes standing in front of you, it dawned on them very quickly that this was not your average The Block series.”
The only difference between them all? Their roofs.
However, according to fans, this might not make the show as interesting.
“Gonna be a boring block, all [the] same houses and layout out. No renovation. Boring,” one said.
“Seriously?! It’s a joke. It’s purely styling. Not like the series of old! Everything is done for them now,” another added.
No working or camping overnight
But, that is not all.
Because the homes are being built from the ground up, this means the contestants cannot work on their homes overnight, because the area is deemed a construction zone.
“They’re used to doing all-nighters, where they can manage their construction team during the day, knowing that we’ve got all those midnight hours to then paint, clean and prepare for the next day,” she explained.
While this might seem stressful for fans, she said there was a reason for it.
“Once the tradies have gone home, they were shut out, but it also gave them a lot of opportunity to pre-plan, and prepare in their minds for the next day… then actually having the brain capacity to work smarter when once they were back on site,” she said.
So, rather than sleeping inside, all of the Blockheads are sleeping in separate luxury caravans.
Shelley told Yahoo! Lifestyle that it gave contestants “distance” from the site, and provided them with a moment to “come together and reflect a little but and take a breath”.
More cash
Each week, the winning team wins more money to dedicate to their homes, but this year, other contestants can also win some cash.
During the first episode, Scott revealed that contestants who do the best budgeting will be awarded with $10,000.
