‘It’s just a nightmare’: Buyers dismayed at further delays to Brisbane riverside, luxury apartments

A new completion date has been set for a long-delayed riverside Brisbane apartment building, three years after the initial deadline, but buyers are still concerned it won’t be finished on time.

The $375 million apartment tower named 443 Queen Street, developed by Cbus Property, is set to be finished by the end of the second quarter of 2023, with settlements forecast in the following quarter.

Neighbouring Customs House, the tower housing 264 apartments with views across Kangaroo Point, the Story Bridge and the CBD was first set to be completed in 2020 but has faced several delays since it was first approved by Brisbane City Council in 2015.

Completion was set back earlier this year after construction company Probuild collapsed in February with works resuming after Hutchinson Builders were appointed to take over in May.

11 months of work to go

In May, Cbus Property’s chief executive, Adrian Pozzo, said he believed construction was about 80 per cent complete when Probuild went into administration.

Mr Pozzo told Steve Austin on ABC Radio Brisbane yesterday works were “progressively gearing up”.

“We are confident that we’ve gone through all the documentation, revisited the program, and we are progressing as planned,” he said.

“We now have a program that sequences correctly and progressively and it just gives us the confidence that we will complete by those dates.”

Mr Pozzo said there was still 11 months of work to be completed including levels of apartments and all common areas.

Mr Pozzo said there were some “defective works” completed by Probuild that now had to be “rectified”.

He would not say what the final cost of the building would be, citing confidentiality with Hutchinson Builders and the administration process underway with Probuild.

Settlements not to commence before third quarter next year

Mr Pozzo said Cbus Property did not like doing partial settlements for its buildings.

“We’d like to finish the product in totality and then settle so people have use of all the amenities including the common areas, pool and so forth. So we don’t like getting people in while we’re still working,” he said.

“I’m hoping they [apartment owners] will be more than impressed, as we all know we’ve had a few hiccups, but I think once the purchasers see the product, the view lines … and the completed product itself, hopefully they’ll be chuffed.

Buyers out of pocket

Bob McKercher signed a contract to buy one of the apartments at 443 Queen Street.

“Quite frankly given all the delays that have been going on, I don’t have any faith that Cbus will finish on time,” he said.

“In the interim we’ve bought a very small townhouse that is suiting us over the short term.

“When we had a get-together with various owners, many people have sold out and renting and they’re out of pocket tens perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Couple’s dream now a ‘nightmare’

It has been a “terrible experience” for other apartment buyers David and Anne, who did not want to share their last names.

The couple, who are full-time carers for their two adult sons who have disabilities, sold their Adelaide home in 2020 when they believed the settlement date would be in 2021.

“We’ve been paying rent for way longer than what we’d thought we’d have to pay,” David said.

He told ABC Radio Brisbane the funds from the sale of their home would no longer be quarantined at the end of this year, so they would no longer be eligible for their pension.

“We just have no faith in Cbus meeting their deadlines, they’ve constantly given us updates and with every single update the finish date is nine months away, it’s 12 months away, we’ve just lost complete confidence in Cbus delivering the project to us,” he said. 

“This last one, the end of next year, that’s really killed us, whether we can get that far without having to pull out of the project. 

“We don’t know whether to pull out and try to find something else, or just try and hang in there.”

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