In the Illawarra region south of Sydney, a half-finished apartment development has become a focal point for the slow unravelling of a $3.3 billion construction empire. Bathla Group, now in voluntary administration, has been ordered to repair twelve serious building defects — including a failed waterproofing system that should never have left the drawing board — or face criminal consequences. The collapse touches everyone in its orbit: buyers who planned their futures around a move-in date, workers waiting to be paid, and a government that has drawn a firm line between public duty and private r
Bathla ordered to fix critical defects as liquidation looms
Approximately 108 apartment buyers, including elderly residents, face delayed occupancy and additional financial burden; 350 Bathla employees at risk of unpaid wages.
No occupation certificate means they can't move in. They keep paying rent elsewhere.
Mark
So Bathla is in administration—that's the company failing, right? But they're still being ordered to fix things?
Mimi
Yes. The building regulator doesn't care that the company is broke. The defects are real and dangerous. Someone has to fix them, and legally that someone is the entity that built it.
Luke
But here's the question: can they? Teneo is trying to find money just to pay staff by Thursday. Where does the capital for eight months of rectification work come from?
Mimi
That's exactly what's unknown. The order exists. The obligation exists. Whether it gets met depends on whether the company survives administration.
Mark
And if it doesn't survive—if it liquidates—what happens to the buyers?
Mimi
They're stuck. No occupation certificate means they can't move in. They keep paying rent elsewhere, storage fees, all of it.
Luke
The spokesperson said October or November completion just weeks ago. That's not incompetence—that's either a lie or a company that collapsed faster than anyone predicted.
Mimi
Probably both. By the time they made that statement, the financial situation was already terminal.
Mark
The government won't bail them out. So who actually pays for the repairs?
Luke
If Bathla survives administration, Bathla does. If it doesn't, it's unclear. That's the real story—the uncertainty.
Mimi
And meanwhile, 108 families are waiting, and 350 workers are waiting to see if they get paid at all.
Il Polso
- A prohibition order locks 108 apartment buyers out of their homes indefinitely, with a waterproofing failure in the basement slab posing the most serious structural threat to future occupants.
- Bathla Group entered voluntary administration carrying $3.3 billion in debt, leaving 350 employees facing unpaid wages and 45 construction projects in limbo across New South Wales.
- Administrators at Teneo are in a desperate race against a Thursday payroll deadline, scrambling to secure private funding before the company tips from administration into full liquidation.
- The NSW government has refused a bailout, arguing that public money must not flow to private creditors — leaving subcontractors and homeowners to navigate the wreckage largely on their own.
- Buyers like Marie Sinclair, whose elderly parents purchased off the plan expecting to move in by December 2025, now face an eight-month repair window, mounting rental costs, and no clear path to an occupation certificate.
In the Illawarra region south of Sydney, a half-finished apartment development has become a focal point for the slow unravelling of a $3.3 billion construction empire. Bathla Group, now in voluntary administration, has been ordered to repair twelve serious building defects — including a failed waterproofing system that should never have left the drawing board — or face criminal consequences. The collapse touches everyone in its orbit: buyers who planned their futures around a move-in date, workers waiting to be paid, and a government that has drawn a firm line between public duty and private rescue. It is a story as old as ambition itself — the gap between what was promised and what was built.
The Kembla Grange development in the Illawarra stands half-finished, its five buildings sealed behind a prohibition order until twelve serious structural defects are repaired. The most critical failure is a waterproofing system incorrectly installed at the basement slab — an error that invites moisture through concrete and into the walls of homes people have already paid for. Building Commission NSW has given Bathla's main entity, Universal Property Group, eight months to fix the problems. Non-compliance is a criminal offence.
The order arrives at the worst possible moment. Bathla Group entered voluntary administration last week with $3.3 billion in debt. Administrators from Teneo are racing to secure private funding before a Thursday payroll deadline for 350 staff, while trying to keep 45 active construction projects from stalling entirely. Without fresh capital, liquidation is the next step.
For buyers, the human cost is immediate. Marie Sinclair's elderly parents are among roughly eighty of the 108 unit owners who purchased off the plan, expecting to move in by December 2025. When Sinclair visited the site last September, she found unattended doors, graffiti-covered walls, and half-installed copper piping. Just weeks before the building order was issued, Bathla had publicly insisted completion was imminent. That promise has since dissolved into an eight-month repair window and an uncertain path to an occupation certificate — meaning more rent, more storage, more months of waiting.
The NSW government has declined to intervene with public funds. Deputy Premier Prue Car stated plainly that a bailout would direct taxpayer money to private creditors rather than to workers owed wages or homeowners caught in the collapse. The government's concern, she said, lies with those people — not with rescuing the developer itself.
So the waiting continues. Administrators work to keep the company breathing. Buyers wonder whether 2027 will bring the keys they were promised. Workers wonder whether last week's wages will ever arrive. And the building waits for waterproofing that should have been done right the first time.
The Kembla Grange development in the Illawarra sits half-finished, its five buildings locked behind a prohibition order that will keep buyers out until serious structural defects are repaired. Building Commission NSW has identified twelve critical failures in the project, most damaging among them a waterproofing system installed incorrectly at the basement slab—the kind of mistake that invites water through concrete, dampness into walls, and eventually unhealthy conditions for anyone who lives there. The commission has given Bathla's main corporate entity, Universal Property Group, eight months to fix the problems. Failure to comply is a criminal offence.
This order arrives as Bathla Group itself teeters on the edge of dissolution. The developer entered voluntary administration last week carrying $3.3 billion in debt. Administrators from Teneo have been working frantically to secure private funding to meet a Thursday payroll for 350 staff members and to keep work moving on 45 construction projects scattered across the company's portfolio. The clock is running down. Without fresh capital, liquidation follows.
For the people who bought apartments in Kembla Grange, the timing is brutal. Marie Sinclair's elderly parents are among roughly eighty of the one hundred and eight unit owners who purchased off the plan, expecting to move in by December 2025. When Sinclair visited the site in September of last year, she found doors with keys sitting unattended, walls covered in graffiti, copper piping half-installed, and surfaces broken throughout. A month before the building order was issued, Bathla's spokesperson had told media that completion was imminent—occupancy would happen in October or November, the company said, and the project would be handed over in great condition.
Now Sinclair faces a different reality. The building rectification order means no occupation certificate can be issued until the defects are fixed and the prohibition is lifted. She is asking the questions that matter to every buyer in the building: Does eight months mean they have to wait that long to move in? Will they need to pay more rent, more storage fees, more money to live elsewhere while the work happens? For many of them, this is not an abstract delay—it is months of additional cost on top of what they have already paid.
The NSW government has made clear it will not intervene with public money. Deputy Premier Prue Car said on Thursday that the state cannot spend taxpayer funds to bail out private creditors of a failed developer. The government's concern is narrower: what can be done for subcontractors owed money and for homeowners caught in the collapse. But a bailout of Bathla itself, she said, would mean money flowing to private creditors instead of to workers owed millions in unpaid wages. That calculation, the government has decided, does not justify public spending.
The eight-month window for repairs is now the only timeline anyone has. Administrators are racing to keep the company alive long enough to complete work on its projects. Buyers are waiting to learn whether they will occupy their apartments in 2027 or beyond. Workers are waiting to see if they will be paid. The building itself waits for waterproofing that should have been done correctly the first time.
Citazioni salienti
For many of us, this means more money and rent and storage fees for everyone.— Marie Sinclair, buyer whose elderly parents purchased an apartment in the development
We're not going to be spending money that belongs to the people of NSW to bail out private creditors for a developer that has gone into administration or receivership.— Deputy Premier Prue Car
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