Collapsed Condev Constructions director Steve Marais bankrupt, facing supplier stoush in Fed Court

The boss of Condev Constructions, which catastrophically collapsed with debts topping $56m, is facing a massive personal hurdle. Here’s what it means for creditors

The boss of Condev Constructions, which catastrophically collapsed with debts topping $56m, is bankrupt.

While watching the remains of his once-revered company picked apart by creditors, Stephanus “Steve” Maris is also embroiled in a Federal Court case with a suite of building supply companies owned by a powerful local family.

Bankruptcy trustee Glenn O’Kearney has lodged an application in the Federal Court on behalf of Mr Marais’s bankrupt estate, with Neumann Steel, Nucon, and Nucrush named respondents.

The respondents are part of Gold Coast building supplies behemoth Neumann Group.

Printing and technology company Berwicks is also a respondent.

Title documents have revealed that properties owned by Mr Marais and by Condev itself were bombarded with caveats from creditor suppliers who scrambled to secure money they were owed as the company went under.

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The Robina former home of Mr Marais and wife Tracy, which they bought for $250,000 in 2001, sold to a Tweed Heads couple for $2.375m a month after Condev’s collapse.

Before the sale, it was subjected to a flurry of caveats, with Bunnings Group, Neumann Steel, Boral Resources and Hymix Australia all registering interests in the five-bedroom lakefront home.

Seven companies placed caveats against two Condev-owned Robina apartments as the builder slipped into administration.

The two one-bedroom apartments on Laver Dr have since sold for a total $941,000, with mortgagees also lining up for a share of the settlements.

Boral, Bunnings, Hymix, Reece, Big River Group, Lyndons and Neumann Steel all lodged caveats on the apartments, with Condev’s liquidator saying there were insufficient funds to pay them out.

Mr Marais’ bankruptcy report gives his home address as the 87ha cattle property, nestled at the foot of Mt Warning, purchased by Condev Properties $2.35m in 2020.

Condev Properties, which is directed and ultimately held by Tracy Marais, changed its name to Carinya Properties in June this year.

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Mr O’Keraney’s statutory report into Mr Marais’s bankruptcy is due to be filed next month.

Among the projects Condev was building on the Coast when it failed was the $200m Capital Court towers at Varsity Lakes, the $140m Allegria at Palm Beach, the $77m Natura at Burleigh Heads and $76m Allure at Chevron Island.

The developers of sold-out Allegria were forced to can the project and return buyer deposits after rising costs made it unviable for its apartment price point.

In the days before the company collapsed in March, Tracey Marais assured media all subcontractors, suppliers and staff had been paid and insisted the company remained solvent.

However, the liquidator found Condev was haemorrhaging up to $1.5m a month in the 10 months before its collapse and had been entering into “unprofitable contracts”.

Less than a year before Condev failed, Mr Marais himself foreshadowed the direction in which many building companies were headed.

Mr Maris told the profit margins for the industry were “down to one per cent and still heading south”.

“As profits erode, there will be a bloodbath at some point,” he told industry site Construction Daily.

“In the booming market, builders go bankrupt if they take on too much work. I call it the seduction of work, and in the end, that’s where the losses will be.”