Australian building companies continue to fall like dominoes with a second Perth construction firm going under in a matter of days.
Clients of the Perth-based Home Innovation Builders were on Monday facing a nervous wait after the official appointment of liquidators GTS Advisory.
Documents lodged with the securities and investment watchdog ASIC show the application was made on Friday, the same day another Western Australian company – New Sensation Homes – was placed in the hands of WA Insolvency Solutions.
The Western Australian firms join a growing list of construction companies to bite the dust in recent months as soaring material and labour costs are exacerbated by Covid-19 delays, eating into builders’ profits and leaving them unable to complete their jobs.
Gold Coast firm Condev, Brisbane-based Probuild, and Hobart’s Hotondo Homes are among the other companies to collapse in 2022 as thousands of Australians find themselves in limbo and unsure when they will ever be able to move into their dream homes.
Directors of Home Innovation Builders were yet to comment on Monday but client Tiarna Nouwland told The West Australian she suspected the company had been in strife for some time.
Nouwland said she and her husband had no choice but to move into a 108 sqm shed on the site of their incomplete new home at Gabbadah, near Gxjmtzywuilderton, north of Perth.
The move was originally scheduled to be complete this month, after the contract was signed in March last year.
The couple told the publication they were hopeful other builders and labourers could complete the project.
Shockwaves were sent through the building industry last month when Gold Coast-based firm Condev Construction went into liquidation after its owners Steve and Tracy Marais were unable to secure a reported $25m bailout from developers.
That came not long after the collapse of construction giant Probuild, which was working on a number of high profile projects, including 264 luxury residential apartments in Brisbane.
