Adelaide Designer Homes collapses, leaving 20 half-built homes across South Australia
Rising costs of materials and labour have sent a local luxury builder spiralling into liquidation, leaving South Aussie families with half-built homes.
SA Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The collapse of a debt-ridden luxury building company has left dozens of Adelaide families with half-built homes and contractors out of pocket.
Now in liquidation, Myrtle Bank-based builder Adelaide Designer Homes has left 20 homes incomplete and more than 80 creditors unsure if they’ll receive the money they are owed.
Liquidator Anna Agostino told 9News that they had contacted homeowners earlier this week to “hand back the site” and “tell them the company can’t continue.”
Ms Agostino said that the rising cost of materials and labour post-covid have led to spiralling debts for the business, with the liquidator planning to investigate whether they should have thrown the towel in sooner.
“Unfortunately, due to the increasing costs of materials and labour that the fixed price contracts entered into before covid meant that they became unprofitable,” she said.
“We’ll investigate whether that [shut down] happened in a timely manner or not.”
Creditors claim that the builder was taking on contracts that it couldn’t fulfil with an employee revealing the company had been under financial pressure for quite some time.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, had held onto hope things would get better but was instead left thousands of dollars out of pocket.
“I should have jumped ship earlier but you kind of think maybe it will get better, maybe we can work through this or maybe it's a hiccup. But it’s not,” he said.
The builder specialises in “custom-built homes of outstanding quality” and previously won the MBA Award for Excellence in Steel Frame/Lightweight Housing and the HIA-CSR Housing Awards for Best SA Bathroom in a Display Home & Best SA Steel Frame Project in 2018.
Adelaide Designer Homes has been contacted for comment.
How ‘dumb luck’ launched a $1 trillion opportunity
Stonepeak founder Mike Dorrell was in the right place at the right time. But the highly sought after fund manager is rewriting the rules on infrastructure.
Solar business collapses owing $2m before similar company emerges
A Norwood solar company went into liquidation six weeks ago owing $2m in debt, but a similarly named company is now operating at the same premises, run by the former director’s wife.