Thousands of Bathla homebuyers are waiting in limbo to find out if their homes will be built or if they’ll lose their deposits, after Bathla Group went into voluntary administration.
Bathla owes over $3.4 billion to around 3,000 creditors, including subcontractors and suppliers, with 14,000 homes in the pipeline, including more than 2,500 half-built apartments. Hundreds of jobs have been lost and the remaining workers at Bathla face ongoing uncertainty.
The Greens say Bathla’s collapse highlights why Australia needs a public developer instead of private developers profiteering off a housing crisis.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:
“People’s entire savings are on the line. It’s so unfair. Where is the Government here? Homeowners and workers impacted by Bathla’s collapse must be protected.
“There is no oversight or recourse for the people who have been left high and dry. They have no home and no money while they wait for a lengthy investigation by ASIC.
“Bathla was meant to be one of Australia’s largest developers of so-called ‘affordable housing’. Instead thousands of homebuyers risk losing everything.
“Private developers are only interested in the bottom line: they cut corners and leave homeowners to foot the bill for poor quality homes.
“For decades now, both Labor and Liberal governments have pushed us into this housing crisis by funneling billions of dollars of public money into the pockets of property developers, investors and the banks, who make bigger profits as house prices and rents go up.
“This is what’s wrong with our housing system – when housing is designed primarily for profit instead of being treated as a basic human right.
“The federal government must stop running scared and take responsibility for housing.
The government must get back into the business of building homes directly. Housing is a human right, just like healthcare and education. It should not simply be left to the private market.
“The Greens want to see a public housing developer to ensure people’s right to good-quality homes ahead of developer profits. We know this plan is possible, because it’s what the government did after World War Two. In 1945, the government directly built 26 percent of all homes nationally.
“Instead of private developers maximising returns and ripping off ordinary, hard-working people, a public developer would deliver homes designed to build communities. It’s time to put homes before profits.”
