'Devastating blow' as Bathla Group seeks $20m to keep building for five weeks

Administrators of collapsed property developer Bathla Group are seeking about $20 million to keep construction going for the next five weeks, as home buyers and contractors wait to find out what happens to unfinished projects and unpaid bills.About 2,000 homes are under construction across the group, and about 13,000 more are in its development pipeline.Bathla is one of Sydney's most prolific residential developers, particularly across the city's west.A meeting was held on Tuesday night between administrators Teneo Financial Advisory Australia (Teneo) and the representatives of 43 lenders to discuss Bathla Group's future. In that call, the administrators said the business required $20 million to sustain the next five weeks of building activity. A customer of the developer, Casey, who previously spoke to ABC News under the pseudonym "Kate", has now agreed to be identified by her real name and appear on camera.She bought an off-the-plan freestanding house at Lochinvar, in regional New South Wales, for $709,990 in the middle of last year, hoping it would become a secure home for herself and her two young daughters.She had previously been told the house would be ready by June, then August, before the expected completion was pushed back to the end of this year, and she really hopes to be in her new home by Christmas."That would be a dream come true for me," she said."All there is to do now is just to wait, pray and hope that, by some miracle, these homes … can get somehow completed."Casey says she hopes her home will be completed. (ABC News: Ben Clifford)Some Bathla contractors are also waiting to be paid.Construction company Delta Foundations said it was owed close to $400,000 for construction work carried out across several Bathla developments in the past 12 months.The firm's lawyer, Tony Taouk, said the money covered work, labour, materials and payments to other suppliers and contractors."It's a devastating blow for them," he said."It represents construction work, labour and materials that have already been provided."Mr Taouk said repeated attempts had been made to resolve the debt before Delta prepared to take legal action."We had gone beyond threatening legal action. A statement of claim was prepared," he said."We were ready to file, but the legal landscape changed overnight, and Bathla went into administration."Once a company enters voluntary administration, legal proceedings generally cannot be commenced or continued without the administrator's consent or permission from the court.Delta is an unsecured creditor."We haven't written the debt off," Mr Taouk said."But nobody can responsibly predict the return to unsecured creditors at this stage."Casey's home is yet to be completed. (ABC News: Ben Clifford)Pressure spreads to private creditBathla's collapse has put fresh focus on private credit because the developer relied heavily on non-bank lenders to finance its projects.Private credit has grown rapidly by lending to businesses and sectors banks regard as riskier, and construction is one of its biggest customers.On Tuesday, 360 Capital briefly halted trading in its Mortgage REIT as it assessed the fallout from Bathla's collapse, before disclosing its loan exposure on Wednesday.It disclosed $31.6 million in Bathla-related loans, secured against completed homes, land lots, apartments and townhouses.It said it expected to recover the full amount it was owed.Independent economist Saul Eslake said the private credit market in Australia had grown rapidly from a small base but was difficult to assess because of its lack of transparency.In its March 2026 Financial Stability Review, the RBA said private credit was still less than 2 per cent of total Australian financial-system assets."Private credit is inherently opaque or less transparent than many others in terms of who their customers are and the terms on which they have made loans to them," Mr Eslake said.Saul Eslake says private credit is inherently opaque. (ABC News: Maren Preuss)"That could prompt not necessarily a rush, but a desire on the part of other investors in private credit to withdraw their funds or reduce their exposure to private credit."But he said Australia was "a long way away" from a repeat of the instability seen during the Global Financial Crisis.Buyers told administration not necessarily the endTeneo lodged a "declaration of independence, relevant relationships, and indemnities" with the corporate regulator on Wednesday.The document said Teneo was appointed voluntary administrators on Tuesday. The opportunity had initially been referred to them by business advisor Frank Sartor on behalf of the Bathla Group. Frank Sartor is a former Sydney lord mayor and NSW planning minister. (ABC News: Gavin Coote)It said Mr Sartor, a former NSW Labor planning minister and Sydney lord mayor, approached Teneo on August 7 to discuss the potential engagement of Teneo to assist with the development of "a strategic communication strategy" for Bathla Group.Mr Sartor then arranged a meeting for August 11 for Teneo executives, Mr Sartor, and Rob Loader, chief executive officer of Bathla Group, to discuss Bathla Group's strategic communications requirements.Those initial communications eventually led to Teneo agreeing to become voluntary administrators for the entities that form the Bathla Group. Lawyer Renee Romanos said people who had bought a home from Bathla Group should not assume that voluntary administration meant their developments would not be completed."A voluntary administration does not automatically mean liquidation," she said."It does not automatically mean the development will not proceed, and it does not automatically mean purchasers have lost their deposits."She said buyers' rights depended on their individual contracts and warned against trying to terminate agreements without legal advice.