Around 200 staff at Australian property developer Bathla Group have been stood down as administrators race to secure emergency funding to keep the firm operating. The company, which entered voluntary administration in late August owing a reported $3.3 billion, is at risk of being wound up if lenders do not agree to a rescue deal, which would have significant knock-on effects for homebuyers, contractors and the New South Wales housing supply.

Insolvency advisers Teneo are negotiating with a small group of lenders, including Hong Kong-based PAG, Ray White Capital and Centuria, over a loan of between $3 million and $5 million, which would fund operations only until the end of September. Teneo has already found enough cash to cover wages accrued since 25 August, though this does not clear all outstanding pay, with some staff unpaid for weeks. A larger $20 million injection would allow longer-term funding to be pursued and work to continue on the group's 45 projects under construction, but the NSW government has declined to bail out the company, which has some 27,000 apartments and dwellings in its pipeline, mostly in Sydney's northwest.