NSW-rectification orders issued

Three Sydney unit blocks linked to family of property developers mostly empty, after rectification orders issued

Three major Sydney apartment towers linked to a family of property developers are sitting mostly empty, with some unit owners waiting years to move in as regulators uncover serious defects.

Former Dyldam bosses Fayad Fayad, Remon Fayad, and their father Sam Fayad are behind apartment blocks in Rosebery, Parramatta and Baulkham Hills, all of which have been slapped with sanctions from the NSW Building Commissioner.

An ABC investigation has revealed the Fayads’ property management company, Ellerson Property, has led the development and sale of dozens of new apartments across Sydney, despite the collapse of their family company Dyldam and looming bankruptcy proceedings.

One unit block, The Laneways Rosebery in Sydney’s inner south, is facing two rectification orders issued by Building Commissioner David Chandler, detailing serious defects which have prevented unit owners from moving in for more than two years.

As Sydney faces a residential vacancy rate below 2 per cent, Mr Chandler said the existence of defective, empty apartment blocks was a “waste of space”.

Parramatta units taken off market

Ellerson Property’s website promotes Observatory Place in Parramatta as an “elegant 24-storey building” still under construction.

Despite developers claiming on social media the building would be finished in early 2022, the units which were being sold off-the-plan are now off the market as the NSW Department of Fair Trading investigates defective building work.

A prohibition order issued to Fayad-owned entity Parkmeng Pty Ltd in late May prevents anyone from moving in until a “serious” drainage defect resulting in “uncontrolled water flow” was fixed.

Updates on the apartment’s social media pages stopped in June last year and the real estate agency hired to sell the 173 apartments in late 2021 has removed the development from its website.

More buyers are caught up in another of the group’s former projects, South Quarter, also in Parramatta, which has not progressed beyond the design phase in four years.

It was first promoted under Dyldam, then passed onto Ellerson Property, and has now been sold to Chinese-backed developer JQZ.

One buyer, who did not want to be named, told the ABC she bought a South Quarter unit off the plan for $650,000 in 2018, with the promise it would be ready to live in by mid-2022.

Instead, the Church Street site is still occupied by car dealerships.

In emails seen by the ABC, the woman wrote to Ellerson Property’s solicitors last year asking to rescind her contract of sale and get her deposit refunded, but her request was rejected.

Ellerson Property has not responded to the ABC’s requests for comment.