Investors win $45m Kawarau case
The Court of Appeal has awarded a large group of investors $40 million in damages over an uncompleted Queenstown apartment development.
The court’s award to 71 mostly Singaporean investors included $5.5m worth of apartment deposits and interest in relation to the 2007 development beside the Hilton Hotel at Kawarau Falls.
Auckland lawyer Phil Creagh, who has been involved in the case for almost five years, said he would also seek legal costs for the investors in the claim led by investor Dr Ho Kok Sun of Singapore.
He said the recent Court of Appeal ruling would restore New Zealand’s reputation with Singaporean investors because it showed the country was a fair place where the courts held developers to their promises.
The development by Auckland- based Nigel McKenna was only partly completed when the global financial crash of 2007-08 hit after the investors had paid deposits, and they subsequently declined to pay the full amounts on the 111 uncompleted units.
There were originally 100 claimants but some had pulled out or settled, Creagh said.
‘‘What amounts to an overseas distressed asset speculator who purchased the debt and litigation case of the failed Kawarau Falls Station project lender has not succeeded,’’ according to Creagh.
There was a possibility the latest ruling might be appealed to the Supreme Court by Kawarau Village Holdings, the company pursuing the investors.
Singapore has been a favoured target of real estate marketers. Last year a real estate company aimed at Singaporeans highlighted the lack of stamp duty, land tax and capital gains tax in New Zealand.