A Brisbane builder is the latest construction company to fold as the sector faces its worst slump in more than a decade
A Brisbane builder has become the latest construction company to collapse as the sector faces its worst slump in more than a decade.
Robson Cotter Insolvency Group has been appointed liquidator of Pantha Homes, a category three builder licensed for work valued at up to $30 million a year, according to The Australian.
Pantha Homes, founded in 2005, completed 48 home projects valued at $13.6 million in 2020/21, but only 11 projects valued at $4.1 million in the last two years, according to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.
Robson Cotter liquidator Roland Robson told The Australian that building costs were a factor in the company’s collapse, but it was too early to say how many homes were left uncompleted or how much creditors were owed.
The QBCC has begun the process of cancelling the company’s licence.
Pantha Homes is the latest in a wave of construction company collapses over the last year and a half. It comes as the sector girds itself for its worst year in more than a decade, as nine consecutive interest rate hikes have sent construction starts tumbling.
Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon said that further RBA hikes – which the central bank has all but guaranteed are on the way – will accelerate the industry’s slide.
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“There was a large volume of work in the pipeline when rates started to rise in May 2022, and there remains a record number of homes under construction, but this will shrink quickly as market confidence continues to fade,” Reardon told The Australian. “Lending for the purchase or construction of a new home had already fallen to its lowest level since 2012 by the end of 2022, and the full impact of last year’s rate increases is still to flow through to households.”
Reardon said the number of detached houses commencing construction is set to drop this year and next to its lowest level since 2012.
Over the last several months, the building industry has been battered by a perfect storm of labour shortages and material price hikes. Several major builders have collapsed, including Probuild, Privium Homes and Pivotal Homes.
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