POCKETS of suburban Australia are being littered with empty, unsaleable concrete shells, as pricey apartment projects fail to find buyers.
The economic downturn has seen 16,623 apartments and townhouses abandoned or deferred in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne between January 2008 and 2009.
Figures from BIS Shrapnel show the number of apartments and townhouses abandoned or deferred in Sydney between January to July last year was 4072, but between August and January 2009 it rocketed to 5326, taking the total to almost 9400.
In Melbourne, numbers of deferred apartments almost doubled over six months and in Brisbane, the number rocketed from 691 in the first half of the year to 4686 in the second.
Figures from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union show the monthly rate of construction companies with winding-up applications against them has increased from 15 in June to 129 three weeks before Christmas, almost half of which involved businesses in New South Wales.
A major South Australian company involved in the state's largest waterfront development, the $2billion Newport Quays project in Port Adelaide, was placed in receivership yesterday, with debts of more than $8 million.
Alpine Construction owner Robert Papilion yesterday met with banks in a last-ditch effort to stave off receivership, before accountant and business advisory company PPB was called in to take control.
Alpine Construction reportedly stopped work two weeks ago on stage two of the $2bn development, which is being developed by companies Urban Construct and Brookfield Multiplex.
Urban Construct chief executive Todd Brown said the development was "for all intents and purposes" finished.
Toop & Toop sales agent Troy Tindall told
The Weekend Australian the developers had recently offered buyers the choice of a new BMW or a boat if they purchased a waterfront apartment.
He said one of his clients would today offer at auction a $70,000 Mercedes Benz C200K car as incentive to buy his apartment.
In Sydney's North Shore, along the Pacific Highway between Chatswood and Hornsby, there are estimated to be between 200 and 500 apartments unsold, including many that are unfinished.
Developers overpaid for the sites in the boom and apartments are more costly to build than houses at $1400 a square metre versus $900/sqm for a house so they are unable to lower the prices in order to pay back their debts.
Industry insiders say part of the problem is that many thought the apartment boom that began up to 10 years ago was here to stay.
In Australia's most expensive street, Wolseley Road in Sydney's Point Piper, high-flying developer Michael Bezzina's $80 million eight-apartment project is in the hands of the receivers.
The apartments originally had an asking price of $14m each, but three now have pre-sale contracts to purchase them for $10m.
On the Gold Coast, dozens of $4m-plus apartments have been on the market for more than a year.
The Coast is suffering badly from over-developed complexes, including Michael Bezzina's Jade apartment tower, which is also in the hands of the banks.
There are four apartments still to sell.
Others sold during the boom for more than $12m.
Larry Malan, director of Gold Coast real estate firm Location, Location, Location, said the price of second-hand apartments over $1m had dropped 20 per cent.
Apartments in complexes in Sydney's Homebush West have remained unsold for over a year.
They are advertised for under $300,000 each.
