No end to the 'property cyclone' as construction costs keep rising and more builders head into insolvency

Alyssa Luc and her partner Xuan Tri Mai are among many Australians who wish they hadn't rushed into building a home.

"I mean, they can see that so many builders collapsed in the past few years. They should know now that the industry is vulnerable." More horror stories are emerging of subcontractors and suppliers waiting to get paid but at risk of never seeing a cent, and consumers left with half-built homes or major defects.

"We need a lot more corporate regulation around directors that trade — the building companies — that know they can't pay the bills, or they're insolvent," Mr Satterley says. Her main concern, especially while she's been pregnant, has been finding traces of silica dust throughout her home.Silica dust can be toxic. It's commonly used to make products across the home, especially for stone benchtops in kitchens and bathrooms.

"We did ask them to come out immediately because of health concerns — and so far, we've only had people come out to do cleaning," she says. IT worker Patrick Quintal says his life has been destroyed by buying into one of Toplace's troubled developments – Vicinity Apartments in Canterbury, in Sydney's inner south-west.When asked if people should buy off-the-plan or newly-built apartments, he says: "Don't. Just don't do it, you are playing Russian roulette with your life basically."It is crazy how poorly the government is ensuring people can actually safely buy property.

Jean Nassif is the owner and founding director of the Toplace Group whose building licence was suspended for 10 years in 2023 by NSW Fair Trading and his company Toplace's licence was permanently revoked.Mr Quintal says the entire building is now being held up by temporary steel structures and worries with increased building activity around the area — including a metro station – the whole structure could one day collapse.

"It's not just this building. It's many apartments that we've seen over the last couple of years … They've all got similar problems."The quality of building is one issue that's kept consumers wary of taking the leap into building.

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