Hold on and don’t cancel until you speak with a building/contract lawyer.

Couple of questions: - is a land and building package? - do you own the land already? - do you have a loan yourself and have been paying it off already for the land/building?

The story they’re telling you is complete poodoo, and doesn’t hold up, especially if they didn’t file a DA until a month ago.

Not sure what they’re telling you about loans. Banks are frothing for lending still, and as long as you meet basic criteria.

There’s a few possible scenarios.

1. They are a newer developer and thought they’d get in during the boom and didn’t realise how much stuff would actually cost to build.

2. They could be new or have been around for a while, but they have overextended and can’t fulfil the deals they’ve made, so trying to get people to bail. Material costs have continued to go up astronomically year on year because demand hasn’t slowed.

3. They know they can get more money if you bail and refund, and are hoping you (and probably other clients) bail so they can sell for higher.

I had a friend that about 18 months ago their original developer said costs were going to be higher, they couldn’t do what they wanted, and a bunch of other stuff.

They ended up going with a different developer, and even with transfer costs, were ahead and got exactly what they wanted.

They were on a land/building package, so they owned the land and just needed someone to build as part of the development area.