In the News: Michael Akkawi on ABC's The Business: Why Bathla Is a Wake-Up Call for Australian Property

The collapse of Bathla Group is shaping up as potentially the largest housing collapse in Australian history, with the fallout projected to exceed $4 billion. Only the failure of HIH in 2001 sits ahead of it.

Our CEO Michael Akkawi joined ABC's The Business this week to unpack what happened, and what it signals for the wider Australian property sector.

The cost falls on people who did everything right

Behind the headline figure are buyers, subcontractors and suppliers. Many of them paid deposits, delivered work and supplied materials in good faith. They are the ones now carrying the cost.

Michael's view is that Bathla is not an isolated failure. Construction costs, taxes, lengthy planning processes and interest rates have been compounding across the market for some time. When a developer without control over its own delivery is squeezed from every side at once, the outcome is rarely contained to one company.

"Bathla is shaping up to be the largest housing collapse Australia has ever seen. It is a wake-up call for the entire industry." Michael Akkawi, CEO, Conquest

Why control over delivery matters

At Conquest, we have spent more than 20 years building a vertically integrated model. Design, construction and asset management sit under one roof, which means we hold control over delivery when conditions tighten rather than handing it to a chain of third parties.

Stability is not a slogan for us. It is how we operate, and it is the reason we can keep building through a cycle that is testing the whole sector.

Watch the interview

Watch Michael's full interview with ABC's The Business on ABC News

This interview follows Michael's commentary over the weekend in The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.