50 Qld companies that collapsed this year | FULL LIST
More than 50 Queensland companies have collapsed so far this year, with the building industry hardest hit and warnings the worst is yet to come. FULL LIST OF COMPANY COLLAPSES
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Those planning to build their own homes in the next three months, have been warned to tread with caution as Queensland’s construction industry reels under an insolvency crisis, with many companies going into liquidation or administration.
At least five Queensland-based construction firms have gone to the wall since January out of a total of 51 companies across all sectors.
Since the beginning of this financial year, there has been a 33 per cent increase in the number of insolvencies reported with 985 Queensland companies liquidated or insolvent across 20 sectors with 235 of those in construction.
In March alone, administrators took the reins of 27 Queensland building and construction businesses.
The numbers have started to drop with 34 Queensland construction companies under administration in February down from the monthly high for the financial year of a whopping 38 in August.
But a report out on Monday on the state of the nation’s housing industry found the construction sector would remain under stress.
The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation’s State of the Nation’s Housing Report found strong demand for housing, coupled with shortages of tradies and materials, along with bad weather put “significant pressure” on the construction industry.
“Industry consultation suggests builders are making cost allowances of up to 40 per cent for unexpected delays, up from a more normal 20 per cent last year,” the report said.
“Approximately 28,000 dwellings were delayed in 2022.”
Some of the delays were due to the collapse of Holland Park-based company LDC, the state’s first home builder to close in 2023, owing $7 million to creditors and subcontractors with 48 projects under way.
Other delays followed the closure of North Lakes company Pantha Homes which shut shop in February after the family-run business went into liquidation, leaving an unknown number of unfinished homes.
South Brisbane-based PBS Building had 24 projects on the go when it went into administration in March chalking up a $40 million debt.
Sunshine Coast’s National Construction Management also went into liquidation in March after the Queensland Building and Construction Commission clamped down on it signing new contracts in February.
Last week, Porter Davis Homes Group, with major works in southeast Queensland, went into liquidation with debts estimated to be $20 million despite embarking on a massive discount drive slashing prices for some homes by up to $50,000.
The collapse of Porter Davis, the country’s 12th largest home builder, sent further shockwaves through the sector, with more than 1700 unfinished houses across Queensland and Victoria.
Master Builders Association CEO Paul Bidwell warned that the tide had not yet turned for the state’s housing construction industry.
He said the sector was still in meltdown after Covid supply chain glitches, interest rates hikes and an unprecedented construction boom anchored by fixed-price contracts.
“It’s the worst we have seen for many years and it’s not because of bad operators — it’s more likely due to fixed-price contracts which were signed when prices were low and supply chains strong,” he said.
“Since the end of last year, the association was always expecting the first quarter of 2023 to be tough and having five construction housing companies in liquidation proved that.
“There are concerns for those building homes right now and we are not confident yet that the crisis has hit its highest point until all the fixed-contracts signed in 2021 are finalised.
“Once they have washed through, and with the possible slowing in interest rates rises towards the end of the year, we could expect the sector to stabilise with fairer contracts signed.”
Here is a list of the latest Queensland builder collapses dating back to July 2022.
MARCH 2023: Porter Davis Homes Group (Liquidation)
The 14 companies that make up the PDH Group went into liquidation on March 31, 2023 after the company was wound up and Matthew James Byrnes, Said Jahani and Cameron Crichton were appointed as liquidators.
MARCH 2023: National Construction Management (Liquidation)
Sunshine Coast building firm National Construction Management collapsed weeks after the Queensland Building and Construction Commission placed controls on the Forest Glen-based company providing tenders and quotes without QBCC approval.
Dane Hammond and Paul Nogueira, of Worrells, were appointed liquidators of the 17-year-old company in March 2023, after complaints it was not paying subcontractors and suppliers.
Company records indicated approximately $3 million was owing, including an amount to the Australian Taxation Office. The company is believed to have had three incomplete projects.
Labour shortages, price increases for raw materials and for contracts, were blamed for projects being delayed or shelved.
MARCH 2023: PBS Building (Administration)
Award-winning national construction company PBS Building went into administration, abandoning its development sites, leaving projects across Australia in limbo, including tower and townhouse developments on the Gold Coast.
PBS was part-way through Marquee Developments’ 19-level Shoreline at Old Burleigh Rd in Surfers Paradise, and sold-out Serenity Reserve townhouse project at Helensvale.
Both sites were locked up and deserted aside from security officers. Calls to the company’s offices went unanswered. The company’s website was removed and its social media pages deleted. PBS Building was based in Canberra with offices in Sydney and Brisbane, however past and present projects ranged from Sydney to Hervey Bay.
The group has delivered residential, commercial, industrial, retail, office, apartment, aged care and mixed-use developments along the east coast and directly employs 190 people.
FEBRUARY 2023: Pantha Homes (Liquidation)
Liquidators took control of Pantha Homes, a north Brisbane construction firm, a category three builder licensed for work valued at up to $30 million each year.
Robson Cotter Insolvency Group was appointed liquidators of the family-owned builder which was founded in 2005, offering “innovative and contemporary home designs” as well as house and land packages.
Queensland Building and Construction Commission reported Pantha Homes completed 48 home projects in 2020/21 valued at $13.6m with 11 projects valued at $4.1m in the past two years. Robson Cotter liquidator Roland Robson said building costs were a factor in the failure and was still calculating how much creditors were owed or how many homes had not been delivered.
JANUARY 2023: LDC (Liquidation)
LDC Pty Ltd was the first Queensland builder to collapse in 2023, with the Holland Park-based company owing creditors more than $7 million and leaving almost 50 uncompleted projects across the state’s southeast.
Liquidator Bill Karageozis, of Mcleods Accounting, took control of the troubled builder, which started in 2018.
Initial investigations showed the company owed subbies and other creditors about $7 million.
That figure was made up of more than 130 subcontractors and suppliers, LDC shareholders and three other parties who lent just over $2m to the company, the ATO and Commonwealth Bank.
QBCC records showed LDC completed 29 projects worth $19.4m in 2021-22 and wrapped up 59 projects worth $31.1m the previous year.
A report to creditors filed with ASIC, showed LDC owned land worth more than $1 million and had $304,000 worth of work in progress with 48 building sites affected in southeast Queensland.
Mr Karageozis said lot owners who have had partially completed contracts were contacted and the liquidators would work with the QBCC to ensure they got what they needed.
DECEMBER 2022: Scooter Group (Voluntary administration)
Sunshine Coast business owner Scott Dwan put his eight construction services companies into voluntary administration in a bid to reorganise his core kitchen cabinetry business after sustaining an almost $7m loss.
Hit by cost blowouts and the Covid-19 pandemic, the companies are part of the Scooter Group, run by the sole director.
The businesses in voluntary administration include Ultimate Spray Pty Ltd; Octeros Cabinets (QLD) Pty Ltd formerly ABC Manufacturing Pty Ltd, and Octeros Cabinets (VIC).
According to the Scooter Group’s financial statements submitted to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission it registered a loss of $6.783m in 2020-21 and $5.232m in 2019-20. The same report to the financial regulator revealed the group in 2020-21 has total equity of $11.875m.
Scooter Group revenue had climbed from $84m in 2019-20 to $144m in 2020-21.
NOVEMBER 2022: Just Kits (Liquidation)
Queensland building company Just Kits, which specialised in small kit homes, went under, owing more than $1m. The company went into liquidation on November 23, 2022.
Dane Hammond, of Worrells, was appointed administrator of the Pialba-based company, trading as JK Project Homes, after the 18-year-old company was hit by rising costs and materials in the construction industry.
QBCC said Just Kits undertook 53 projects last financial year worth $5.1 million.
In a report to creditors, Mr Hammond said the company was founded in 2005 and primarily supplied smaller kit homes and garages before taking on larger projects and changing its name to JK Project Homes. The company owed subcontractors and suppliers across southeast Queensland about $1.3m.
Mr Hammond said the QBCC also had been included as a creditor for an undisclosed amount after “numerous customers” contacted the watchdog to make claims under Queensland’s home warranty insurance scheme. In February 2022, the company started to take on larger work to build bigger homes.
NOVEMBER 2022: Lanskey Constructions (Liquidation)
Paul Lanskey’s Queensland construction business owed subbies and other creditors more than $11m.
A report lodged by liquidators FTI Consulting with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in November 2022 revealed Lanskey Constructions Qld Pty Ltd’s 282 unsecured creditors including the Australian Taxation Office, suppliers and subcontractors were owed $11.2m.
Ben Campbell and John Park, of FTI Consulting, were appointed by directors to wind up the company in October.
Lanskey, founded in 1986 by Paul Lanskey and Ross Williams, was involved in large commercial projects across Australasia with offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland.
Lanskey Construction Qld held a category 5 licence from the Queensland Building and Construction Commission with allowable annual turnover of $120m. That licence was suspended by the QBCC in October for failing to meet minimum financial requirements.
OCTOBER 2022: Oracle Homes (Liquidation)
Hundreds of Queensland families’ dream home plans were thrown into disarray following the collapse of high-profile builder Oracle Homes.
The company went into liquidation after the builder demanded thousands of dollars in extra payments three months prior. Oracle, which traded as Oracle Platinum Homes and Oracle Hunter Homes, went into liquidation in 2022 with all staff terminated immediately and no further building works to be undertaken by the company. About 70 employees lost their jobs.
SEPTEMBER 2022: Art Struct (Liquidation)
Brisbane building firm Art Struct, specialising in luxury home renovations, collapsed owing almost $2 million, joining the growing list of construction failures.
Jarvis Archer, restructuring partner at Revive Financial, was appointed administrator of the New Farm-based company, which specialised in renovations of inner-city Brisbane homes.
Mr Archer said the builder had signed fixed-price contracts with customers but suffered significant losses due to cost blowouts on materials.
The company had ceased trading in January 2022, with all 14 ongoing projects terminated by customers. It went into liquidation on September 2, 2022.
Like many other building firms, Art Struct was caught out by a surge in labour and materials costs that have put many fixed-price contracts under water.
SEPTEMBER 2022: Nerang Street (Liquidation)
The development company behind a $500m masterplanned project on the Gold Coast called in administrators, leaving creditors including some of Queensland’s biggest builders owed about $80m.
Nerang Street Pty Ltd, which is developing the Queen Street Village at Southport, went into liquidation on September 20, 2022 after being hit by funding problems as well as the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Robson Cotter Insolvency Group, in a report to creditors lodged with ASIC, said Nerang Street originally owned nine lots within the project but five blocks had been sold.
Unsecured creditors of the company were estimated at $40.8m, including Brisbane construction firm Tomkin which is owed $16.2m.
“The directors disclosed the main reasons for the company’s financial circumstances included a change in property market valuations, inability to meet funding arrangements and prior to that the general impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said.
Secured creditors were owed about $43m, including $22m to Hutchinson Builders.
MAY 2022: Pivotal Homes (Liquidation)
Gold Coast-based construction firm Pivotal Homes went under in May 2022 with more than 200 new home builds thrown into chaos.
Managing director Michael Irwin revealed at the time rising labour and construction costs were the main reason the company was forced into liquidation.
Creditors were given until October to lodge claims and establish title.
Christopher Richard Cook and James Andrew Robba were appointed liquidators on August 25, 2022.
APRIL 2022: Privium (Liquidation)
Privium was once one of the largest home builders in the country, until it went into liquidation in December 2021, leaving 890 homes unfinished and debts in excess of $80m.
The company had less than $400 in the bank when the company went into voluntary administration in November. Annie Solomon and her family were one of the unlucky ones who were left with an empty plot of land in Birkdale after signing a contract with the company in January 2021.
After signing with Privium, the couple knocked down their current home and moved into a rental for the remaining months before their estimated move-in date in October 2021.
But at the end of the year, Privium had collapsed before they had even started construction, leaving the couple in the dark, and without their 5 per cent deposit worth $12,000.
MARCH 2022: Condev (Liquidation)
Failed building giant Condev owed creditors and other suppliers more than $30m when it went into liquidation in March 2022. Its 107 workers were out of pocket for $2.45m.
In a report lodged with ASIC, Worrells insolvency partner Jason Bettles said unsecured and subcontractor retentions totalled almost $31m – owed to about 700 people and entities – while the Australian Taxation Office was owed $530,000.
Secured creditor Westpac was owed about $6.3m.
Condev collapsed in March after talks with developers about a $25m cash boost broke down and the directors considered liquidation was the only option for the company.
Mr Bettles said he had been told by Condev directors that subbies, suppliers and other trade creditors had been paid but he was yet to determine how much the company owed.
Condev had more than 100 employees whose outstanding entitlements were expected to be paid in full.
DECEMBER 2021: BA Murphy (Liquidation)
FTI Consulting liquidators moved to take control of BA Murphy Constructions on December 22 2021 after weeks of uncertainty over the company’s future. A first dividend will be declared to creditors on April 6, 2023.
According to documents lodged with ASIC, the company’s directors had “formed the view that the company was insolvent and unable to pay its debts when they became due.”
BA Murphy had signed or taken deposits on about 240 residential contracts with another 50 projects under way on site.
It also had 11 commercial contracts under way. About 100 customers were affected in NSW, 154 in Queensland and 35 in Victoria.
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission suspended the firm’s licence in December 2021 after complaints it was not paying subbies on its various projects around southeast Queensland.
The troubled firm abandoned millions of dollars worth of projects after the loss of the licence.
The firm had earlier told subcontractors it was exiting all its commercial projects including townhouse developments in Brisbane, Caloundra and Sippy Downs.
According to QBCC records, BA Murphy completed 98 projects worth $30.7m in 2020/21 and 100 jobs worth more than $27.5m the previous year.
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