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Michael wins The Renovators

South Australian builder, Michael Lynch, has won The Renovators -but could the winner-take-all prize leave fans feeling let down?

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South Australian builder, Michael Lynch, has won The Renovators.

The 27-year-old, who was the keyholder for the Fibro Cottage in Blacktown, saw his property sell for $440,000 -a profit of $68,012.

Lynch bettered the profit of the Inner City Terrace in Glebe, which sold for $925,000, and a $25,732 profit. Carpenter Luke Pollock looked set to take out the title before the auction of the Fibro Cottage went above its profit margin.

As the series winner, Lynch takes the profit from all six houses, which was rounded up to a cool $100,000.

But the money was well short of the digits TEN trumpeted at the series launch when there was speculation it could reach half a million dollars. This was because several of the houses failed to reach their profit margin, determined by the original purchase price plus the renovation budget.

The final sales were:

Fibro Cottage $440,000. Profit $68,012
Inner City Terrace $925,000. Profit $25,732
WeatherBoard $575,000. Profit $1,145.
Half Done House $770,000 (Under profit of $802,083)
Sixties suburban $730,000 (Under profit of $758,194)
The Shop $700,000 (Under profit of $713,676)

The finale included lots of long faces (and a few pixellated ones too) which mirrored the drama of The Block when several sales failed to meet expectations.

The judges were especially creative in turning the negatives into positives, telling renovators they had done well to see the properties sold.

The winner-take-all prize could leave fans feeling let down, as some of their favourites walk away empty handed.

But the win for Lynch will be sweet. $100,000 matches the cash prize of several other reality shows including the mega-hit MasterChef.

“It’s an amazing feeling and an absolute privilege, having first made it to the top six then being named Australia’s Best Renovator. After months of hardcore renovating on the show, I’ve still got my very own home renovation that’s been waiting for me, so I’ll be pouring all my prize money into that,” said Lynch.

Judge Robyn Holt added, “Michael is such a delightful young man with a wonderful skill and work ethic – a thorough winner in all ways. His natural curiosity and quick uptake on new skills was a pleasure to watch and mentor throughout the whole programme. I can see a very bright future for Michael. A well deserved winner!”

The edited finale, which had originally been promised as a live finale, tried to pass itself off as a single night’s event by swinging from auction to auction. In reality they had been staged across three nights a fortnight ago.

Despite lacklustre ratings, TEN has promised the show by Shine Australia will return in 2012.

Updated.

30 Responses

  1. Totally agree with the comments re Robyn Holt. She is lovely – very warm personality and great empathy with the contestants. Baz is also a find, I found him to be an absolute delight.

  3. Was pleased to see Michael win it not only because he is a SA boy but he was the original key holder right from the word go! My second choice would have been Luke – also an original key holder! Don’t know what i’m gonna do 7:30 weeknights now! haha!

  4. @ Benji, totally agree, I love Robyn too. She is just so warm and friendly, as well as being an expert in her field. Would love to see more of her

  5. Michael was the nicest contestant & was willing to help everyone on the working bees and the white room challenges he deserved to win. My wife and I enjoyed the show better than the block, but would have been happier if they left the final two at each house as the contributed as much as the keyholder

  7. Enjoyed the series but found the pretend auction night insulting. Everybody worries about the 1million+ ratings but if I was buntings or freedom getting 800000 eyes interested in renovating 6nights week for 3 months I wouldn’t be complaining! Glad Micheal won. Hope it’s back (revised) next year! Agree Robyn is a fab judge (but I Luke them all)

  8. It’s a catch 22 these renovation shows. People love renovating these days, its quite common, although maybe not a whole house, so people want to watch. But the buyers market is terrible so no one’s gonna buy the renovated property, at least not for what they’re probably worth. So what’s a win? High ratings, but houses that don’t sell? Or low ratings, but selling properties with profit?

    Hope it returns next year. Just needs to tweat format. I have said scrap eliminations and share prize pool with winning team, but if it’s such low profits that prob won’t work.

    Happy Michael won, 60s suburban, and half done house were surprises. And lol at August with the shop. That was a fizzer.

  11. @Steven, I hope they don’t go down The Block route of having partners/families renovate. Faux dramatic family dynamics *yawn*. It is much more interesting bringing groups of strangers together, the interplay of personalities is better.

    I was shocked that the inner city properties did so badly. I thought the Glebe terrace would get over $1M, given what a desirable suburb Glebe is and the quality of the renovation. Someone got a bargain there, as did the people who bought the Marrickville property and the half-done house at St Peters, which I think should have brought a higher price for Peter. That one went for an absolute steal, I would have loved that house myself. St Peters is only a couple of kilometres from the airport and is on the flight path, so perhaps that affected its value. I felt very sorry for those whose properties did badly, but they knew, as did viewers, that it was winner takes all. I was also quite surprised that the 60’s suburban did so poorly.

    I noticed when Brendan wrapped up at the end that he made no reference to the show returning next year. I hope it does as I think it is a good show that is well executed and streets ahead of The Block, but I agree it needs some tweaking. Less white room challenges, more on-site renovating would be a start. Four teams of six rather than six teams of four would also be better. I hope the host and the judges all return, the four of them are fantastic.

  12. Just because the other key holders didn’t walk away with a cash prize, I wouldn’t say they left ’empty handed’. They gained plenty of experience as well as opportunities and contacts within in industry they clearly love.

    The show isn’t like the Xfactor bwhere their dream is reliant on the outcome, these guys already work within the industry, and because of the show are better for it.

  13. I think the show did the best they could and all the renovators worked really hard to get the houses done. Remember at the end of the day it is a tv show.

  14. It took a while to warm to the judges but as the series progressed we got to see a bit more of their character. I enjoyed the show but wasn’t able to watch every night. I’ll be looking forward to its return next year. Great job by Michael and Jarrad on the fibro house.

  17. I love Robyn Holt. She by far the most encouraging and well spoken person on the show – but still extremely entertaining to watch.

    I hope this is back next year with a few tweaks…

  18. Well done to Michael. He was a deserving winner. It’s a real shame this didn’t rate higher. I personally enjoyed it more than The Block.

    I notice the host made a point of thanking their “fantastic” sponsors. I doubt whether they’ll be able to convince any of them to get back on board next year.

  19. Quick math accounting for lossess means total “profit” is really just over 20k. Take out all the prize packages that wern’t accounted for in the budgets including a 40k pool for the fibro and the renovators is well and truly in the hole. Depiction of “live” auction typical of the contempt the free to air channels treat their viewers these days. Well done to Michael but a deserved failure to ten.

  20. I have to say, good on TEN for just playing this show out at least. We all complain about our shows being pulled when the networks pull them for poor ratings.

  21. The winner take all prize was repeated adnauseum so fans of the show shouldn’t feel let down. Similarly, the contestents knew that 3 months of hard work could be for nothing.
    You had to feel sorry for the judges who had to make the contestent’s losses more palatable but it got a bit wearing when they had to keep saying that they’d done a really good job and they should be happy the place sold. Who are they kidding? They were always going to sell – mostly for seemingly ridiculous prices. The punters knew they had to sell so the bidding remained low but there’s not much the producers can do about human nature.
    Had to laugh when I saw Michael’s reaction that the winner to that stage had only made a profit of 2.8%
    I’m amazed it’s getting a guernsey again – there are many anomalies to address.

  22. In the end the figures are a little deceptive because the “break even” marks they were trying to reach, purchase price plus 20% reno budget, did not include all of the additional prizes that were thrown in along the way eg the Fibro Cottages $40,000 pool.

    Another example was with the bathroom challenge where where the 60’s surburban won $30k, Half Done $20k, etc etc etc. It seems pretty obvious that by this stage all of them were running out of money and time and they were throwing cash at the problem to save all 6 houses being half done.

    I did enjoy the series, and was glad Michael won and Melissa, after continually telling us that the Weatherboard was house that was going to win made $1100! Hilarious!!!!

  25. No chance it will return in 2012 unless it is practically a new show. The only way I see it is. A family edition where family groups of 4 get a house each and work together to renovate. Increased personal story telling, more actual renovating, no eliminations.

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