A Sydney developer that spruiked itself as Australia’s first “halal-friendly housing solution” has been forced into liquidation with debts understood to be upward of $200m, potentially leaving hundreds of despairing families across the country tens of thousands of ­dollars out of pocket.

The majority of those are families from Australia’s Pakistani ­diaspora, who appeared to have been targeted with the firm’s “interest-free housing solution” that claimed to adhere to Islamic anti-interest sharia laws, and whose three directors are themselves from the same community.

It comes after The Australian revealed in June how the company, Qartaba Homes, and its myriad of entities had started to unravel amid rising amounts of debt, with customers left waiting for years for any glimpse of their long-promised properties that are now destined to never come.

On Thursday, NSW’s highest court ordered Qartaba and one of its numerous related entities be wound up in insolvency, joining at least 10 of its other related entities in liquidation.

The case was brought to the state Supreme Court by high-­profile commercial litigation firm Greenwood Lawyers, which is currently representing more than 100 affected Qartaba customers across various projects in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

freediver wrote on Apr 4^th, 2015 at 7:23pm:

😆