Porter Davis Homes collapses as home builder appoints liquidator Grant Thornton

One of the country’s largest home builders has collapsed with 1,700 projects grinding to a halt.

Victoria-based business Porter Davis Homes went into liquidation on Friday. The company had struggled to find a white knight buyer by Thursday evening prompting them to appoint Grant Thornton as liquidators the following morning.

Some 470 staff are employed by the company and had been working on at least 1,700 projects across Victoria and Queensland. It was ranked the 13th largest home builder in the country with a staggering 1,734 homes built in the 2020/21 financial year.

More than 1,500 homes were currently being built in Melbourne, another 200 in Queensland and another 779 projects were yet to begin.

Staff were notified the company was going under during a meeting on Friday morning. One worker, who had been with the company for eight years, said the construction industry was facing unprecedented times.

‘Building is a volatile industry at the moment,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen it like this.’

Mr Thornton said liquidators would investigate the reasons for the collapse.

‘The extremely challenging environment for the residential home building has directly contributed to the PDH Group’s (trading as Porter Davis) financial position, with rising input costs, supply chain delays, labor shortages, and a drop in demand for new homes in 2023 impacting the Group’s liquidity,’ he said.

Subbies United’s John Goddard said some subcontractors were still waiting on payments since as far back as Christmas.

‘Suppliers have stopped their accounts and subbies are not working for them,’ Mr Goddard said.

‘They’re another box builder basketcase.’

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