Major Aussie builder collapses with more than $3billion debt: Bathla Group goes into voluntary administration
Sydney-based property developer Bathla Group has collapsed into voluntary administration, owing more than $3 billion, in one of Australia's largest recent builder failures. Administrators from Teneo were appointed on Tuesday to assess the company's finances and try to keep construction and property settlements running, a move that threatens jobs, ongoing projects and buyers who had paid for homes still to be delivered amid Sydney's housing shortage.
The group's main entity, Universal Property Group, owes almost $3.2 billion, while a related firm, Raj & Jai Construction, had $304 million in liabilities at the end of the 2024-25 financial year. Bathla builds budget-friendly estates, townhouses and flats in growing north-west Sydney suburbs including Schofields, Marsden Park and Tallawong. Managing director Bhart Bhushan, a former taxi driver who founded the company in 1997 with his brother Rajinder Mohan, blamed a "perfect storm" of weaker sales, tax changes and rising construction costs, and said the priority was working with administrators, lenders and contractors to protect staff and customers.
- Sydney builder Bathla Group enters administration owing over $3 billion
- Teneo appointed to stabilise finances and continue construction, settlements
- Founder cites weak sales, tax changes and rising costs as causes
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Bathla Group is one of Sydney's larger residential builders, known for putting up affordable house-and-land estates, townhouses and apartments in fast-growing suburbs on the city's north-west fringe. It was founded in 1997 by brothers Bhart Bhushan and Rajinder Mohan, and has grown into a major player during a period when Sydney has faced a severe shortage of new housing.
Voluntary administration is a formal process a company's directors can trigger when they believe the business can no longer pay its debts. Independent administrators are brought in to take control, review the company's finances, and work out whether it can be restructured and kept trading or should be wound up, with creditors ultimately voting on its fate.
This case matters beyond one company's finances because building firms sit in the middle of many people's plans and money: homebuyers who have paid deposits for properties yet to be finished, subcontractors and suppliers owed payment for work already done, and employees whose jobs depend on projects continuing. A collapse of this scale also feeds into wider concerns about the financial pressures facing Australia's construction industry, including rising building costs and a slowdown in property sales.