With Gold Logie winner Scott Cam once again at the reins, the latest series of The Block exploded onto our screens on Sunday night. Touted as the "biggest Block ever", it gave contestants the challenge of renovating a dilapidated office block in Prahran, Melbourne into five stylish new apartments.



It was an explosion that, well, fizzled. I can't help but feel the show has become as dilapidated as the building they’re renovating. With Channel Nine airing five episodes each week, the premiere offered none of the excitement I expect in my reality TV.

There were no real challenges for the contestants. The most suspense came from them being unable to sleep because it was windy during the night. And it didn’t make up for this by doing any character development, probably because the contestants don’t seem to have any stories to tell. Middle class, heterosexual and largely white, there was no diversity – resulting in few distinct story lines for the producers to pursue or for me to care about.

However, there is still something really interesting about The Block. This one TV program manages to epitomise one of the strongest undercurrents in Australian society: our property obsession.

A foundation stone of the "Australian dream", property ownership was originally part of a desire to enhance wellbeing and improve stability in our lives. Yet, in recent years, our homes have become an obsession that is taking hold of our politics, our workplaces, and our free time.

No longer is it just about owning a home, it has become about having a bigger and better one. A culture of consumerism – fed by demands for economic growth – has led us to demand more. We have to have the McMansion and if we don’t have it just yet, we will renovate to get there. We can see this best in our TV. The Block is just one of a long string of renovation shows, from classics such as Better Homes and Gardens, Backyard Blitz and Hot Property to newer versions such as The Living Room. We have become a renovation nation.



Unfortunately the consequences of this go beyond Channel Nine. We have headed down the path where we spend all our weeks working, only to spend our weekends obsessing over our houses. Statistics show that in 2012, Australians spent $6.35bn on home renovations. Our paychecks have gone down the property drain, leaving us working longer hours every week to spend money on a house that we no longer have time to actually live in.



And in doing so we’re pricing people out of our property market. As we renovate to create bigger and better houses we’re pushing up property prices, making it more and more difficult for people to buy in. It’s why I couldn’t help but feel a little ill when I saw the size of the apartments in The Block. The office block is huge, but will only have five apartments built into it. Each will have three bedrooms, three bathrooms as well as ample living space. They are massive.

But it's happening in cities all around Australia: huge apartments being built in the inner city, which only a very select few can afford. Head to the suburbs and, unfortunately, it isn’t much different. McMansions have popped up all over the place, extravagant houses that have left people with massive mortgages they’re unlikely to ever pay off. It's bad enough that our renovation obsession is eating up all our money and time; worse still that for many others, it is making home ownership an unachievable dream.

