How Chelbrooke Homes & Descon collapse ruined dreams of homeowners

Kenia Alves is paying rent and a mortgage on a vacant block of land after her builder Chelbrooke collapsed. She estimates the saga has cost her $100,000 and she’s still picking up the pieces.

Eliza Parker worries she will never be able to buy her own home after the collapse of the builder for her off-the-plan apartment on the Gold Coast

The 27-year-old nuclear medicine technologist paid a $49,000 deposit on a two-bedroom unit in Southport’s Waverley Residences in November 2021.

She had planned to move out of her parents’ place and into her own home with her partner in May 2022.

Two years of anxiously waiting later, she is still living with her parents, with all progress on the apartment – tantalisingly close to completion – stopped in the wake of the builder’s collapse.

“It’s just been awful the last two years really,” she said.

“This was going to be my first home, it was my chance to get into the property market.

“Two years ago, the only way I could get into the property market was to buy something off the plan – I couldn’t afford anything else.

“So if I don’t get this apartment, I’m renting for life. This is it.”

Eliza Parker believes if will be renting for the rest of her life after her builder went bust. Picture: John Gass

Receivers moved in on Busikon, the developer of the unfinished development, leaving more than 60 buyers in limbo in May.

The project was under construction by Descon Group Australia, which went into liquidation the week earlier.

The companies behind the developer and builder are both directed by the same man – former bankrupt Danny Isaac, whose Descon and Adcon groups have left a nine-figure trail of debts around the country.

While multiple liquidators and regulators in two states work to pick apart the Descon nest, home buyers like Ms Parker are left with uncertainty and frustration.

The Waverley Residences, under construction by Descon in Southport.

“For two years, I’ve come up here every Saturday and watched the progress of the build, my parents and I walk the dogs around here so that we can see what’s going on,” she said.

“So it’s not just money that I’ve put into this, it’s my time, anxiety, my hopes and dreams – everything has gone into this for two years.”

VACANT BLOCK INSTEAD OF DREAM HOME

What should be Kenia Alves’ new dream home is a vacant block of land overgrown with weeds.

The forlorn site at Tweed Heads was where Ms Alves and partner Pavel Novak had contracted Gold Coast builder Chelbrooke Homes to construct two residences, one to live in and the other to rent.

Kenia Alves at the site of her dream home which is now a vacant block of land overgrown with weeds.

But their plans, and their lives, were thrown into disarray when Chelbrooke collapsed last year – triggering a disastrous and stressful set of circumstances from which they are only now just starting to pick up the pieces.

The couple bought the elevated Leeward Tce block, with breezy views over the Tweed, in March 2021 and signed with Chelbrooke just over a year later.

“The realtor that sold us the land recommended Chelbrooke, and we did some due diligence and some research, and we liked them,” Ms Alves said.

But when Chelbrooke collapsed last August, leaving dozens of homes unfinished and about $2m owed to subcontractors and suppliers, “panic” set in.

While they got back their deposit, Ms Alves said they lost tens of thousands of dollars in architect, engineer, town planning and council fees. Meanwhile, quotes for the job from new builders soared by about 30 per cent.

Kenia Alves says she has lost time and huge amounts of money after her builder went bust.

And they’ve been forced to pay months of extra rent, not to mention a surging mortgage.

“To say it’s been very stressful is an understatement,” she said.

“We got really, really stressed. By now, we should be living here.”

Ms Alves estimated the saga had cost her and her partner about $100,000 and they had now been forced to ditch plans for two homes and just build one “because we just can’t afford to go ahead with building townhouses here”.

They are among several Chelbrooke customers The Courier-Mail spoke to, including one African immigrant couple whose home at Banora Point, near Tweed Heads, is only half-built.

An economist, Ms Alves said she did not blame Chelbrooke for the collapse but rather “inaction” from over worker shortages which were helping push up construction costs.

“We have massive investment in public infrastructure, which I believe is important, but this is also attracting the workforce to government projects, rather than making them available to tackle the house shortage issue,” she said.