This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CANBERRA-based national builder company PBS Building has collapsed, leaving 180 staff without a job and 80 commercial and residential projects across Queensland, NSW and the ACT in limbo.
More than 1,000 secured and unsecured creditors are owed more than $25 million in total by the Canberra-based builder.
Jonathon Colbran, Richard Stone and Mitchell Herrett from insolvency firm RSM Australia Partners have been appointed as joint administrators across all of PBS’s entities, and two other parent companies.
PBS had removed its website from public viewing and shut down its social media pages, following reports that subcontractors at some of its sites were removing equipment on Friday.
“This has been a gut-wrenching decision that we know will impact many lives and livelihoods. However, after months of intense efforts behind the scenes, in the end it was the only responsible course of action available,” PBS founder Ian Carter and the 33-year-old company’s board of directors said in a statement.
The statement said, “the unprecedented combination of record material costs, fixed price contracts, labour and material shortages, extreme rain events, floods, bush fires and wars has proved an insurmountable challenge”.
“We are the latest, but we won’t be the last construction group to buckle under the weight of a broken industry and way of doing business that needs urgent reform.”
PBS’s current projects include Marquee Developments’ 19-level Shoreline apartment tower at Old Burleigh Road in Surfers Paradise and Keylin Group’s sold-out Serenity Reserve 86-townhouse project in Helensvale on the Gold Coast, while it is also working on Stockland’s The Parks at Red Hill in Canberra and The Curl at Bokarina Beach on the Sunshine Coast, and Doma’s Melrose project in Canberra’s Woden.
PBS had reported a $2.56 million loss in 2022, according to its annual financial statement lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments in Commission. In 2021, it posted a $3.26 million profit.
Administrators were appointed to PBS Building Pty Limited, PBS Building (NSW), PBS Building (QLD) Pty Ltd, PBS Building (ACT) Pty Ltd, and PBS Management Company Pty Ltd.
The company’s statement said that as of 6th March, all employee entitlements have been fully paid out.
Construction industry woes continue
The construction industry has been smashed by rising material costs, supply chain issues and labour shortages, providing for a dogged 2022 capped off by the collapse of Elderton Homes. Major casualties included such as ProBuild, multibillion-dollar developer Caydon Property Group, and Queensland builder Condev, leaving billions of projects across the country in doubt.
The woes have continued into 2023. High-rise and luxury apartments developer EQ Constructions was among the first builders to collapse this year, owing at least $40 million to $50 million.
