Bhart Bhushan posted a short statement on Tuesday that froze construction sites across western Sydney: Bathla Group, the developer behind them, was entering voluntary administration with more than three billion Australian dollars in debts.
The collapse is Australia’s largest residential builder failure since the 2022 crisis that took Probuild and Grocon, and it lands on a market already bruised by smaller liquidations. Teneo takes control of entities including Universal Property and Raj and Jai Construction, with about 15,000 properties under construction across Sydney’s west and thousands of home buyers and tradies left waiting.
Three billion dollars in the hole
The Australian Financial Review puts Universal Property’s debts at nearly 3.2 billion Australian dollars, about KES 296 billion, and Raj and Jai’s liabilities at 304 million Australian dollars as of June 30, 2025, largely owed to private creditors. That creditor profile means the administration will be negotiated in boardrooms as much as courts, with settlement timelines measured in quarters.
The perfect storm
Bhushan cited a significant softening in sales, the tax changes delivered in the federal government’s May budget, falling confidence in key markets and construction…