Sydney Builder Goes into Administration

High-end Sydney housebuilder EQ Projects has called in administrators amid an investigation into one of its buildings.

Shumit Banerjee and Rajiv Ghedia from Westburn Advisory were appointed as administrators to the business earlier this month and the first meeting of the creditors of the company has been arranged for this week.

The apartment developer reportedly collapsed owing between $40 million and $50 million to around 500 creditors.

Signalling things to come, a winding-up order had been brought against the company in November 2022 by scaffolding company Waco Kwikform Limited.

According to Banerjee, there are a number of ongoing projects involving EQ Projects throughout New South Wales including in Parramatta and Bowral.

“The director is looking to restructure the company and offer a deed of company arrangement, and no staff have been laid off,” he told media. 

He said that historical events rather than one loss-making project led to the administration. 

“They haven’t recovered from the impacts of Covid, [inclement] weather and the shutdown during Covid had an impact on their revenue stream, so that is a large portion of the issues,” he said.

EQ Constructions Pty Ltd, trading as EQ Projects, was registered in Hurstville, Victoria in 2015, and had around 40 staff at the time of going in to administration.

Projects to the builder’s credit include The Lennox in Parramatta,and The Pinnacle in Liverpool, according to its now defunct website.

Its development portfolio also included Wavelength at 49-57 Gerrale Street, Cronulla, which it built for Iridium Development, according to planning documents.

▲ EQ Projects worked on Gosford Central, part of the Gosford City Centre Masterplan.

NSW Fair Trading confirmed to The Urban Developer that it has been investigating the Wavelength residential apartment building as part of Project Intervene, but could not provide any further comment on the details.
 
Launched in 2022, Project Intervene aims “to find resolutions for owners corporations to have serious defects, such as waterproofing, fire safety systems, structural systems and building services” remediated through NSW Fair Trading rather than through expensive litigation.

Its implementation gave powers to NSW Fair Trading to conduct inspections and issue stop work, prohibition or building work rectification orders for specific buildings.

According to EQ Projects’ archived website, “cultivated relationships and alliances with quality subcontractors create a collaborative environment that brings true quality, budget and schedule benefits to all EQ Projects operations”.

This is the latest in a line of liquidations and administrations in the construction industry, putting further pressure on developers. 

Late last year Perth’s Clough Group collapsed with $10-billion worth of government projects on the books, followed by Brisbane’s LDC Construction in January. 

Delco Building Group also collapsed earlier this month with insolvencies set to continue into 2023 as the sector faces major inflationary pressures.