Homebuyers left in the dark as embattled property developer Bathla confirms major lay-offs

Property developer Bathla Group has stood down almost two-thirds of its workforce following its entry into voluntary administration earlier this year.

About 213 of Bathla's 350 staff were stood down at a meeting in Sydney on Monday morning, and construction on several projects has halted as the embattled firm clings to life.

Bathla is one of Sydney's largest residential developers, with 45 projects under construction.

Administrators said they had secured short-term funding to keep some of the firm's projects going.

Insolvency adviser Teneo announced it had secured the funding through five lenders linked to the projects, but the amounts and participants were kept confidential.

Administrator Stephen Longley said the funding would enable Bathla Group to maintain limited operations for a further two weeks while longer-term solutions were explored.

"Our immediate priority has been to secure sufficient short-term funding to maintain a minimum viable operating structure," he said.

"The arrangements agreed allow us to provide the central support required for construction to continue on projects associated with the lenders participating in the funding package.

"Significant work remains to secure the funding required to progress and ultimately complete all projects currently under construction. We will continue to work closely with lenders and other key stakeholders to pursue those arrangements."

NSW premier reacts

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the government was talking with administrators, but defended not spending public money bailing out the Sydney-based business.

Minns described Bathla's corporate structure as strange and highly reliant on debt from private lenders.

"I can't just hand money over to an administrator, particularly when the finances of this particular firm are so opaque and difficult to decipher," Minns said.

"There's been a lot of commentary about the way this company ... was managed and run, particularly the enormous amount of debt it ran up.

"This is a very strange corporate structure involving a hell of a lot of debt, largely collected from private credit, not through the banks and traditional finances."

Figures presented to creditors put Bathla's total debt at $3.4 billion, including $3.08 billion to secured lenders, $130 million to unsecured lenders, $145 million to the tax office and $4 million to employees.

The home developer entered voluntary administration in late August after the NSW government declined to bail it out.

'Slow-moving trainwreck'

Former NSW building commissioner David Chandler said issues with Bathla were widely known and called the firm a "slow-moving trainwreck".

"I've had lots of contractors come to me since I retired as commissioner, saying they'd been approached by Bathla to come and actually finish or undertake projects for them," he told ABC TV.

"They said to me there was no way because they were such a difficult group to work with ... it was hard to get paid."

Chandler said those who bought an uncompleted Bathla home off the plan should be able to get their deposit back, because the money was supposed to have been held in trust.

"The people who will be most caught out here will be trade contractors and suppliers who haven't been paid, and some not paid for a very long time," he said.

According to the company's website, the group has 20,000 apartments and 7,000 dwellings in its delivery pipeline, comprising a significant share of the NSW government's target of 75,400 new homes a year for five years until 2029.

Homebuyers who bought off-the-plan have been left in the dark, uncertain when, or if, their properties will be completed, while contractors have been left scrambling to recoup debts.

Founded in NSW in 1997, Bathla is among a long list of Australian home developers that have recently entered voluntary administration or liquidation.

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