David Bonaddio, Real Estate Reporter
First published 24 Oct 2026, 12:00pm
The six-home luxury development at 8-12 Were Street, Brighton, is being sold by receivers for circa $9m after construction stalled.
Six unfinished Brighton luxury homes are being sold by receivers for circa $9m – barely more than one finished mansion fetched on the same street.
The five-bedroom home at 60 Were Street sold for $8.5m in March, leaving just $500,000 between that result and the advertised price for the entire six-home development at 8-12 Were Street.
On paper, that’s about $1.5m per proposed home. But an incoming buyer would still need to finish the residences, with the cost of completing the project yet to be disclosed.
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Stonebridge is marketing the 3305sq m property under instructions from receivers and managers Grant Thornton, after construction progressed beyond the framing stage.
The project is approved for five four-bedroom homes and one five-bedroom residence, with foundations, ground slabs, pool structures and structural framing already completed.
About 200m from Brighton Beach, the development is surrounded by some of Melbourne’s most expensive real estate, with the partly built homes standing in contrast to their established neighbours.
Structural framing is already in place at the Brighton development, which has approval for five four-bedroom homes and one five-bedroom residence.
The unfinished Were Street project is being offered for just $500,000 more than a single Brighton mansion on the same street sold for in March.
Stonebridge national partner Julian White said the substantial work already completed could “significantly shorten the development time frame” for a purchaser seeking to bring the six homes to market.
But Future Property Group founder and managing director David Cummins warned taking over another developer’s unfinished project could be a costly gamble, with buyers potentially inheriting problems that could undermine any apparent savings.
“There is a huge risk with taking over a project,” Mr Cummins said.
He said defects, exposure to the weather or missing documentation could potentially force incoming builders to redo parts of the existing work, making careful inspections and due diligence essential before committing to a purchase.
Residences three and four are among six planned homes at 8-12 Were Street, Brighton, where individual landholdings range from 340sq m to 703sq m.
Mr Cummins said projects could also become financially unviable when construction costs increased between the original planning and eventual delivery.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show house construction prices rose 5.9 per cent nationally in the year to June 2026, including a 3.7 per cent rise in Victoria.
Meanwhile, construction accounted for 24.5 per cent of companies entering external administration for the first time in 2025-26, the largest share of any industry, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Future Property Group managing director David Cummins warned developers taking over unfinished projects could inherit significant risks alongside the work already completed.
Mr Cummins said developers needed to rethink how they approached projects rather than continuing to prioritise speed and financial commitments before proper planning was complete.
“We cannot keep on trying to solve tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s thinking,” he said.
The circumstances behind the Brighton receivership have not been established, and there is no evidence linking the project’s difficulties to any particular construction cost increase or building defect.
Bayside Council records show the development’s planning history dates back to a permit numbered 2014/666, with further amendments considered as recently as October 2022.
Brighton’s Church Street shopping and dining precinct is about 1.2km from the beachside development, where expressions of interest close on November 19.
The six unfinished luxury homes at 8-12 Were Street, Brighton, have a combined planned saleable area of more than 2000sq m, including garages, with construction progressing beyond framing before the receivers’ sale.
However, those records do not establish when construction stopped or why the project was left unfinished.
Expressions of interest for the property close at 2pm on November 19.
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