Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Worrisome secrecy surrounding rectification work at a Macquarie Park apartment block found to be at risk of long-term collapse can only undermine the NSW government’s policies targeted at relieving the housing supply and affordability crises.Both the developer and the building watchdog government agency that ordered the repair work have stonewalled our attempts to ascertain the steps taken to fix the problems.The 885-unit apartment complex at 23 Halifax Street is precisely what we need to address our housing problem – high-density places where people want to live that are well served by public transport.The apartment block complex at 23 Halifax Street, Macquarie Park.Credit: Brook MitchellIt was developed by Chinese-led developer Greenland Australia and built by now-defunct GN Constructions. People began moving in four years ago, but last January the building industry regulator, the Building Commission NSW, issued the rectification order after discovering serious concrete slab faults caused by defective workmanship, which could affect the structure’s ability to carry loads.The commission said there was no immediate risk to residents and any threat of collapse was long-term, but the agreement it reached with the developer to rectify the problems has been shrouded in secrecy.The rectification order was removed from the Building Commission website in June last year, and when the Herald sought a copy of the remediation agreement in August under freedom-of-information laws, the agency agreed to release a redacted version, saying a full document would expose strategies used to bring developers into line. Even then, before the commission could release it, Greenland appealed in November against revealing any information. Neither the commission nor Greenland would reveal the grounds for the appeal. But the commission rejected that appeal, and the company has until March to appeal again.LoadingThe developers were given eight months to rectify the problem. A year later, the public is none the wiser on how the work is going. However, the publicity has apparently hit property values. In late 2023, before the headlines, one-bedroom apartments sold for about $775,000, while two-bedroom and three-bedroom units commanded about $1 million. Last September, a one-bedroom went for $691,800; four years earlier, it fetched $738,000.The Building Commission already has its hands full in dealing with recalcitrant small builders who are failing to rectify four in 10 new standalone houses within the ordered time frame. Just as it is time for the commission to take a harder line on shoddy builders, the same hard line surely applies to larger developers.
