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Australia's largest residential builder Metricon has put up its hand to help finish off construction for more than 300 homes that have been in limbo since the collapse of Porter Davis Homes (PDH) in March.
The plan, still awaiting final approval from the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA), involves ultimately finding a solution for up to 500 customers whose properties were left unfinished when Porter Davis went into liquidation.
Incoming Metricon CEO Brad Duggan says the company sees the failure of the Porter Davis business as an industry problem, which Metricon has the will to fix.
“As Australia’s largest residential builder we have been working with the VMIA to generate a large scale industry solution," Duggan explains.
“Our approach is to provide a large-scale solution for hundreds of those affected customers."
Metricon is very close to finalising an arrangement with the VMIA to provide an option to hundreds of Porter Davis customers to be in their new homes as quickly as possible.
“We are confident that we have a strong plan to deliver homes for ex-Porter Davis customers without impacting our existing Metricon customers,” Duggan says..
“We are also pleased that the VMIA has great confidence in Metricon’s financial position and operational capacity following a detailed review process. Ex-Porter Davis customers should take great comfort in the diligence that VMIA is undertaking to creating solutions for the completion of their homes."
Another leading Australian homebuilder, Simonds Group (ASX: SIO), reported to the ASX today that it had commenced completion and rectification works this month for former Porter Davis customers.
"Simonds is pleased to be partnering with the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority as one of their panel builders to assist people to complete their dream home in what has been a challenging time," Simonds executive chairman and CEO Rhett Simonds says.
"We were happy to participate in the independent assessment commissioned by the VMIA which has confirmed Simonds’ financial strength and operational capacity to take on this important work.
Metricon itself was rumoured to be on the brink of a similar fate in 2022 but its owners injected $30 million into the business to instill confidence, while Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) also agreed to double its loan facility with the company.
CBA is also the highest priority creditor in a report released today by the liquidators of PDH at Grant Thornton, who have negotiated and agreed the handover of 44 close-to-completion homes during the period of liquidation, while more than 400 building contracts are being negotiated as part of a sale of the group's townhouse division to Nostra Property.
This is out of a total of 1,700 that were under construction when Porter Davis went bust, alongside a further 770 contracts with customers where building had not yet begun.
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