This year, The Block on Network Nine is doing something a little differently. Currently in its 22nd season, the show has been long associated with heritage restorations in and around Melbourne. However, the 2026 Block homes are brand-new luxury houses, created from scratch, located in Mount Eliza on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. 

All five luxury homes are designed as contemporary two-storey properties, on closely packed land. The multi-level construction allows living and dining areas to be elevated to maximise panoramic views over Port Phillip Bay and the Melbourne city skyline. 

But there is perhaps more at play with their two-storey design than just aesthetics and views. The builds also represent a move towards vertical living, particularly on narrow plots. With a need to build 1.2 million homes across Australia over the next five years to meet growing demand, this doesn’t just mean more apartments, but medium or gentle density created by unlocking housing in our existing suburbs. This includes townhouses, duplexes, triplexes and micro-lot homes incredibly and perhaps significantly as seen in Cloudbreak, a townhouse awarded 2026 HIA Australian Home of the Year.

The change to vertical living also means design considerations, and one solution on The Block was home elevators, specifically from Australia’s own Next Level Elevators. According to the show’s resident architect Julian Brenchley, there were many factors behind the decision to incorporate lifts into the homes’ designs. ‘The desire was for the homes to represent accessibility, convenience, sustainability and futureproofing. All these are increasingly important expectations for buyers, while the multi-level site also made vertical movement a practical consideration,’ he says.

Peter Burns, Next Level Elevators Victoria State Manager, who led the Next Level Elevators team on The Block project adds that installing lifts in the homes leans into future saleability. ‘It is as much about the value if you decide to sell, as well as the immediate benefit homeowners get from the usability.’

From design to delivery

The decision was made that all five houses be fitted with the Italian engineered Eltec Volare. Because the Volare runs on a fully electric traction drive rather than a hydraulic system, it doesn’t need a separate machine room.

‘It is well suited to residential use with a 300kg load capacity, a maximum travel of 10 metres across up to four stops, and a maximum speed of 0.25 metres per second,’ Peter says. Surprisingly, the lifts run on a single-phase, 230V, 10A power supply, the same standard household circuit used for everyday appliances like a kettle, rather than the three-phase supply many lifts require.

‘It requires a pit depth of only 150mm and a headroom of 2400mm. Combined with its compact footprint, none of the homes needed significant structural or electrical accommodation to integrate the lift into the build.’

All lifts were installed using the exclusive Australian SMARTShaft, a modular, self-supporting shaft that can be clad in a range of lightweight materials, giving designers wide scope for custom finishes. This enabled the lifts to be installed quickly, easily and to tight building and production deadlines.

As Peter explains, very early in the process they met with the contestants to discuss their needs. ‘Every house on Season 22 was built to a "quiet luxury" brief: light, bright and white, in keeping with the Mount Eliza market.’

Within that shared brief lay a real challenge for contestants: how to stand out. Three of the five houses (Houses 1, 2 and 3) shared an identical floor plan, and the remaining two (Houses 4 and 5) shared another, so teams on matching floor plans were effectively competing directly against each other and needed to visually differentiate their home from its closest rival ahead of auction day.

Bespoke lift designs certainly helped to differentiate. Three of the five lifts (Houses 1, 2 and 3) are three-stop through-cars, opening on opposite sides of the cabin to allow entry and exit from different levels, well suited to their kitchen and pantry locations. They carry residents from the first-level garage through to the kitchen and pantry on the second level and up to the third level. Houses 4 and 5 use simpler 2-stop, single-entry configurations.

The link between the lift and the stairs was a 'marriage from heaven' from the outset, designed as an integrated part of the architecture rather than added as an afterthought. ‘We wanted to create a more seamless and premium result,’ Julian explains. ‘Together, their positions were carefully coordinated with the circulation areas, helping each level work efficiently while maintaining good flow and usable living space. The stair circulation design provides a clear, comfortable connection between floors, while the lift offers effortless movement between bedrooms, living areas, entertaining spaces and parking.’

Together, they give the finished home greater flexibility for different stages of life and support the idea of long-term, age-in-place living.

All five lifts were fully customised to their house's individual design brief, and every one was delivered on time and within budget, ready for commissioning ahead of filming. One of Peter’s favourites is House 1's lift, which features custom wall panels finished in designer wallpaper rather than a standard panel finish. ‘We worked directly with Grafico, the wallpaper supplier chosen by the designers, to get the application right,’ he says. This is a good example of the flexibility needed to meet a designer's vision. supplier chosen by the designers, to get the application right,’ he says. This is a good example of the flexibility needed to meet a designer's vision.

Around The Block

Delivering five lifts across five houses in a single season required a very different approach from the typical installation process Next Level Elevators manages. Rather than completing one project at a time, all five installations were planned and executed in parallel.

A total of 10 installers worked on the project across both stages, supported by Peter as project manager. Approximately 15 people contributed to the project in total, including warehouse staff responsible for packing and dispatching the shafts and lifts, a sales consultant who guided cabin finish selections, and management staff overseeing the project from planning through to completion.

‘Unlike a typical residential install, the project ran against The Block's production timeline, set by Channel 9, rather than a conventional construction program,’ Peter says. ‘Every trade on site had to work to the same fixed deadlines, which limited how much flexibility any one team had to adjust its own schedule.’

Adding to that constraint, Mount Eliza's local council enforced a strict tools-down policy at 6pm, ruling out night work. With daylight hours capped and the production deadline fixed, trades across the build had to work simultaneously rather than sequentially to get everything finished in time.

Lead time was around four weeks per house, a remarkable turnaround given each lift was fully customised to its design team's choices, against a normal benchmark of around 16 weeks for a comparably customised install. To hit that, the team met with each site's builders six weeks ahead of installation to confirm floor voids were sized correctly, and power circuits were correctly positioned and working.

With the lifts positioned in kitchen and pantry areas across the five houses, installers had to work alongside tilers, cabinetmakers, plumbers, electricians, and other trades in the same confined spaces at the same time to meet the tight deadlines. This wasn't new territory for the installers, but the scale was unlike anything they had previously experienced. At one point, between 20 and 50 tradespeople were working simultaneously across a single kitchen and the lower floors of the home, out of roughly 450 people on site across all trades during install week.

Julian adds, ‘The benefits of a lift extend beyond mobility. It makes everyday life more convenient – carrying groceries, luggage, laundry, a case of wine or shopping between floors becomes effortless. It can also make the home more welcoming for family and friends of all ages and abilities. A well-designed home lift is therefore more than a luxury. It is an investment in independence, comfort and dignity, helping a home adapt to its occupants rather than requiring its occupants to adapt to the limitations of the home.’

According to Peter, the most challenging part of the project wasn't any single technical problem but the constant coordination: getting everything right every day while relying on a builder constructing five houses simultaneously, each trade moving at its own pace. 

‘The specific pressure points were getting information from the build team in time, pulling together every house's customisations inside a four-week window, making sure power was activated on each house exactly when the lift install needed it, and keeping communications and deliveries synced across five sites at once. Ultimately, we're proud of how each home turned out. The Block showed that a fully customised lift can be designed, delivered and commissioned inside a tight construction program, and that's the conversation we want to be having with builders.’

To see more of Next Level Elevators on The Block go to:

• House 1 – Adam & Jolene
• House 2 – Chantel & Wyatt
• House 3 – Lisa & Rosco
• House 4 – Courtney & Sev
• House 5 – Rick & Tayla

This article was compiled with contributions from Next Level Elevators.