Hundreds of Bathla projects remain unfinished as replacement builders weigh risks, leaving buyers waiting and raising concerns about neglected sites and property values.
Some of Bathla’s unfinished Sydney developments risk becoming “wastelands”, expert warns
The risk from Bathla Group’s collapse reaches beyond incomplete houses. If stalled construction drags on, residents could face neglected sites, weaker property values and communities left waiting for homes that were meant to bring them together.
Rinnah Roque, 60, bought a three-storey townhouse off the plan in Box Hill, in Sydney’s north-west, hoping to build a home for herself and her mother in a growing community. Across Hynds Road, Bathla was building 47 homes. Now the work has been silent for two months.
“I worked so hard to be able to buy a property for my mum and myself,” Roque said. She had hoped the houses would go up quickly: “You want to live in a community.”
“All of a sudden everything stopped,” she said. “What’s so frustrating is everything was just left behind.”
The Box Hill project is one of hundreds caught in Bathla Group’s $3.4 billion collapse, with dozens of developments part-built when funding dried up. Some private equity firms owed money by Bathla have taken control of projects they financed and are trying to find builders to complete them. That search may take time: experts and industry stakeholders say replacement builders could be wary of taking responsibility for work they didn’t do.
Bathla declined the ABC’s requests for an interview and comment.
Why finishing the projects may be difficult
The obstacle isn’t only finding a builder. A new contractor may struggle to judge whether existing work is sound, and could be asked to warrant construction completed by someone else, said Lyndall Bryant, a property economics professor at Queensland University of Technology.
“If you’re a builder coming into a job that’s half-finished, you don’t want to be warranting the work that someone else has done,” she said. “If the concrete’s been poured, you don’t want to be saying, ‘Oh yeah, I guarantee that that concrete’s been done properly.’”
Checking plumbing or electrical work can be especially hard once walls are up. A private equity firm that spoke to the ABC anonymously said builders it had approached were cautious, but it remained confident it would appoint one.
Urban Taskforce Australia, which represents developers and equity financiers, expects most projects to be completed. Its chief executive, Tom Forrest, said he would worry if serious defects cost more to fix than the approved land was worth, though he couldn’t see that happening across many sites.
The costs of Bathla’s collapse could extend beyond stranded buyers. If local councils have to finish roads and sewerage that Bathla was expected to provide, ratepayers could end up funding infrastructure for developments that serve relatively few people. Professor Bryant warned that Blacktown City Council could face significant costs while also losing the rates revenue it expected from completed homes. Mr Forrest said delays would disrupt the council’s cash flow. Blacktown Council declined to comment. The Hills Shire Council Mayor, Michelle Byrnes, called the collapse “another hit to public confidence in the construction industry.” She said she was devastated for Sydney buyers left stranded by Bathla.
Michelle Byrne says the public's confidence in the construction industry has been dealt another blow. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)
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