An award-winning luxury apartment builder has gone into liquidation as higher interest rates cripple the housebuilding sector.
Taskers Living Development Company went into liquidation on Monday, meaning the company would cease to exist.
The Perth-based developer won the 2016 Master Builders Construction Excellence Award for Best Apartment Building.
He had built apartments overlooking the Swan River and North Fremantle beach.
An award-winning luxury apartment builder has gone into liquidation as higher interest rates cripple the housebuilding sector.
But liquidator David Hurt, of WA Insolvency Solutions, said it was a voluntary liquidation in which no money was owed to any creditors.
‘It is a voluntary liquidation, it is not insolvent. They just don’t need the company anymore,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It’s not working now. They just asked us to liquidate that particular company, they just shut down that particular entity.
“The company has reached the end of its life, whatever the purpose for which it was created, and is no longer needed.”
Director Gary Dempsey Developments Gary Dempsey was the project manager for Taskers’ Siskas development in North Fremantle, which completed in 2021.
“It is standard procedure to close a project entity upon completion,” a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘As such, Taskers Living Development Company Pty Ltd has been placed into voluntary liquidation as part of this process.
“All obligations have been settled and there has been no staff for several years.”
Dempsey continues to build apartments with his other company, Gary Dempsey Developments, which he founded in 1987.
The liquidation of Tasker Living Development Company comes after the Reserve Bank of Australia in November raised interest rates for the 13th time in 18 months, taking the cash rate to a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent. .
Credit rating agency Moody’s Analytics warned the construction sector was particularly at risk, with Australia’s economic growth set to slow to 0.9 per cent in 2024, down from 1.9 per cent in 2023.
“Construction is a particularly weak area, with external management requests increasing over the past three years,” said report author Katrina Ell.
“The construction industry has suffered a perfect storm of labor shortages, as well as delays and rising material costs.”
Construction companies accounted for 30 per cent of total insolvencies filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2022-23.
Taskers Living Development Company went into liquidation on Monday, meaning the company would cease to exist (pictured is the Siskas development in North Fremantle)
Moody’s Analytics said smaller construction companies, which primarily build homes, were most at risk.
“Small and medium-sized construction companies have been particularly vulnerable because they have not had the cash flow reserves or insurance coverage of their larger competitors to manage delays and price increases,” he said.
Western Australia will also experience dry conditions in 2024 as heavy rain falls on the east coast.
Commonwealth Bank sustainable agriculture economist Dennis Voznesenski said this would have implications for Western Australian farmers.
“While the east coast of Australia has seen a phenomenal change in soil moisture since last November, many agricultural regions in Western Australia have continued to swelter in hot, dry conditions,” he said.
Perth, however, is the best property market in Australia’s capital, with CoreLogic data showing house and unit prices in the year to January 2024 rose 16.7 per cent to $676,823.
Director Gary Dempsey Developments Gary Dempsey was the project manager for Taskers’ Sikas development in North Fremantle, which completed in 2021.