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When Andy Neverly put his savings on life in Opal Tower 2208 in Sydney, he thought he had found a "dream house".
But this dream became a nightmare on Christmas Eve when residents of the newly constructed 36-story building were forced to evacuate due to fears for safety after significant cracking.
Many residents are still so worried that they refused to return, including Mr. Neverly's tenants.
In an explosive interview with 60 minutes The Sydney man, who aired tonight, said he was facing financial ruin after paying $ 840,000 for the condemned apartment.
Andy Neverly paid $ 840,000 for his apartment. Image: provided
"It's our worst nightmare – it's what you call the Australian dream turned into an Australian nightmare," said Neverly to reporter Ross Greenwood, adding that he thought the property would 39, had no value.
When asked what the situation meant for Mr. Neverly's savings, his response was brutal.
"I think it's worthless … it's lost, it's gone, it evaporated, we're in the creek," he said.
Andy Neverly claims to be facing financial ruin after investing in an Opal Tower apartment. Image: 60 Minutes
It's a spectacular fall for a residential block that has been touted as a living luxury in the Sydney Olympic Park.
But just four months after it opened, cracks literally began to appear in the concrete panels of the Sky Garden structures on the 10th floor.
The noise was so loud that it was heard by terrified locals, and the CCTV cameras of the building also attracted crunches.
the 60 minutes The crew recently became the first media team to access the "zero point" of the tower, capturing the extent of the damage on film.
The developer Ecove has since done emergency stabilization work to try to prevent the towers from moving further.
Ross Greenwood has been keeping up with several concerned residents of the Opal Tower. Image: provided
As a result, hundreds of major industrial accessories – weighing up to 100 tons each – have been installed in the living room and bedroom of people up to level 10 – and Mr. Neverly said residents should return home with the same support. in place.
Initially, the affected residents of the building, developed by Ecove and built by Icon, were offered a payment in food and temporary accommodation.
The 60 Minutes crew filmed inside the 'ground zero' of the opal tower. Image: provided
But as of today, these payments were cut for residents of 97 apartments after the company's engineers, Cardno, said these units were safe to be occupied.
However, Mr. Neverly said that every owner of the 392 Opal apartments had his own "heartbreaking" story, with hundreds of thousands of dollars shattering the values of their home.
"There is no doubt that people will suffer extreme financial losses – extreme financial hardship because of that," Shady Eskander, owner of the Opal Tower, told Ross Greenwood.
He said that he knew that a resident had sold their apartment about $ 800,000 just before the crisis – only to receive a paltry offer of only $ 400,000 later.
The apartments of the Opal Tower are now filled with huge industrial accessories. Image: provided
"The same person then said:" You know what? "While the story continued to unfold," Mate, I will not even offer you a dollar, "said M Eskander.
Some believe that the crisis has worsened due to the deterioration of the Australian real estate market.
60 minutes He also spoke with Martin North, an badyst in the real estate and real estate sectors, who had predicted that Australian real estate prices could fall by 40% in the "worst case". scenarios".
"I still think we could see (a) drop more than 40% in two or three years … it will not happen overnight, but 20 to 30% is my best estimate for a local crisis. without this international context, which will take us even into more negative territory, "he told the program.
Martin North, housing badyst, said the Australian real estate market was in trouble. Image: provided
Former NSW Treasury Secretary Michael Lambert told Greenwood that "thousands" of real estate across the state could hide serious flaws, such as the Opal Tower.
Mr. Lambert, who undertook a review of building standards after a horrible fire in 2012 in a Bankstown apartment, said the program "virtually none" of the 150 recommendations covering the top 10 areas of reform that it had proposed had been implemented.
He expressed concern about the Australian "construction boom" that had driven people to try to put buildings on the market as quickly as possible – and that there was a "high risk", which led many "sharp".
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