Innaloo Haven@49 Apartments

The 878m² property at 49 Oswald Street in Innaloo, previously consisted of a duplex known as 49A and 49B Oswald Street. Both residences were constructed in 1968.

 

Property sales

49A first sold for $85,000 in July 1991, followed by sales for $93,000 in November 1992, $96,000 in August 1997 and $120,000 in March 1999. It was later advertised for lease in October 2014 and September 2016.

 

49B sold for $435,000 in September 2010 and was advertised for lease in November 2013.

 

The complete duplex property was sold to Ability Support Pty Ltd on 15 July 2018 for a reported $1.075 million. This appears to have been one transaction covering the entire property rather than separate purchases of 49A and 49B for the same date.

 

Redevelopment

The site was within Sub-Precinct Area 2 of the Innaloo Area Local Development Plan. Its location near Innaloo Shopping Centre and the proposed Stirling City Centre allowed substantially denser construction than the previous single-storey duplex, incorporating apartment buildings of up to five storeys.

 

Ability Housing’s Haven@49 apartments

Ability Support Pty Ltd was registered in March 2017 and trades under the registered business name Ability Housing. The company acquired the Oswald Street property for a purpose-built Specialist Disability Accommodation complex.

 

Development application DA20/0738 was lodged with the City of Stirling on 27 May 2020 for Units A and B at 49 Oswald Street.

 

The project was originally promoted as Ability Housing’s Haven@49 Boutique Apartments. It was intended to contain six purpose-built homes for people eligible for High Physical Support, Fully Accessible or Improved Liveability Specialist Disability Accommodation.

 

The proposed apartments were between approximately 90m² and 110m², excluding balconies. Depending on the configuration, each apartment would contain one or two accessible bedrooms, an additional bedroom or study, private bathrooms, an accessible kitchen and a large terrace or garden.

 

Other proposed features included lift and ramp access, automatic doors, wide doorways and paths, ceiling-hoist provision, height-adjustable kitchen benches and smart-home technology. Onsite overnight assistance was also proposed for residents requiring additional support.

 

The original property listing stated that Haven@49 was scheduled to open in late 2021. That didn’t happen.

 

Construction begins

The City of Stirling recorded a certified building permit under BC20/2246 for limited forward works during 2023. The work was valued at $80,000 and included clearing the site, constructing the lift pit, below-ground stairs, a store associated with Apartment 8 and pad footings or foundations for structural columns.

 

The same permit, description and value appeared in the City’s February and May 2023 building records. These appear to relate to the same forward-works approval rather than two separate $80,000 projects.

 

Schearar Developments Pty Ltd of Canning Vale was named against the work. The approval only covered the preliminary and below-ground components and was not a permit for the complete apartment building.

 

Google Street View imagery captured in October 2023 shows IPM Projects signage attached to the temporary fencing at the front of the property. No other Street View imagery was captured during the main construction period, making it impossible to determine exactly when IPM Projects arrived or what work was taking place at that time.

 

It is also unclear whether IPM Projects was the builder, project manager or another contractor working alongside Schearar Developments.

 

Construction later stopped and the property was abandoned for a considerable period.

 

Stalled works

When I photographed the site in December 2024, the incomplete building was visibly deteriorating. Exposed concrete contained extensive irregular cracking that resembled the surface of a lake after the water had dried up. Incomplete stairs, loose materials, exposed drops and changes in height created numerous trip hazards throughout the building.

 

The condition of the concrete cannot be diagnosed from photographs alone. Some of the cracking may have been confined to the surface, while other areas may have required inspection or repair before construction could continue. What was clear was that the unfinished structure had remained exposed to Perth’s heat, rain and weather for a fair amount of time without reaching completion.

 

Schearar Developments enters liquidation

Schearar Developments Pty Ltd entered liquidation on 28 August 2024, approximately four months before I photographed the abandoned site. Daniel Johannes Bredenkamp of Pitcher Partners was appointed liquidator.

 

The company’s building contractor registration, BC102427, has since expired. The registration of its director and nominated supervisor, Paramjeet Singh Khaira, also expired.

 

In February 2026, the State Administrative Tribunal reprimanded Schearar Developments and fined Khaira $40,000 following disciplinary proceedings concerning separate building projects in Mundaring and Ashfield.

 

The agreed facts included arranging home indemnity insurance under another builder’s name, defective work, inadequate management and supervision and the cancellation of a building contract. Part of a second-storey wall at the Ashfield property collapsed onto a neighbouring roof in November 2022. Because another builder had been named on the insurance documents, the homeowner was unable to make a claim.

 

Those proceedings did not concern 49 Oswald Street and can’t be used to determine what happened at the Innaloo site. However, the liquidation of the company named against the 2023 forward works is directly relevant to the condition and status of the unfinished project by the end of 2024.

 

The liquidation may have complicated or prolonged the stoppage, although it does not explain the entire delay. Haven@49 had already missed its advertised late-2021 opening by several years before Schearar Developments entered liquidation.

 

The Schearar business names

Schearar Developments Pty Ltd was only one of several names associated with Khaira’s building and consulting work.

 

Khaira also operated as an individual sole trader under ABN 80 771 490 948. Schearar Builders was registered under this ABN from May 2020 until its cancellation on 20 June 2024. Khaira Consulting was registered under the same sole-trader ABN in October 2022.

 

This means Schearar Builders was not a separate company. It was a business name held personally by Khaira. Schearar Developments Pty Ltd was a separate company and the entity that later entered liquidation.

 

Schearar Builders was cancelled approximately two months before the liquidation of Schearar Developments. Khaira Consulting remained registered under the sole-trader ABN.

 

The Schearar website presents the business as providing engineering, design, consultancy, project management, construction and development services. It repeatedly refers to its engineers, builders, managers and team but does not identify any of them.

 

The website does not clearly state which Schearar company or business name operates it. It contains no list of directors, builders, engineers or project managers, no building registration numbers and little detailed information about the dates, clients or locations connected with the projects shown.

 

It is the usual polished construction website filled with stock-style images and general claims about quality, innovation, attention to detail and experience but remarkably little information that would allow a potential client to check who would actually be responsible for their project.

 

There is also no mention of the liquidation of Schearar Developments, the cancellation of Schearar Builders, the expired registrations or the later tribunal findings. The website continues to display a current copyright date, although it’s unclear which legal entity now operates it.

 

The number of companies, sole-trader registrations and business names does not itself prove that anything improper occurred. However, the lack of clear information about which entity performed each service does little to give potential clients confidence in who they would be contracting, who held the required registrations or who would ultimately be accountable if something went wrong.

 

IPM Projects

IPM Projects Pty Ltd was registered in January 2021 and remains listed as an active Australian company. Its registered business name is IPM Projects, with a main business location in Osborne Park.

 

The company used contact details also associated with Status Residential, including the former Unit 2, 7 Leeway Court address and telephone number. Status Residential is a registered business name held by Luxury Living WA Pty Ltd, which also operates the Develop Residential name.

 

The shared contact details indicate some form of business connection or shared administration but the precise relationship between IPM Projects and Luxury Living WA could not be established from free public records.

 

Like Schearar, IPM Projects had very little useful public information. Its former website was parked in 2021 and no meaningful archived version could be located. There was no accessible company history, list of management, team information or completed project record that would allow a client to properly examine its experience.

 

IPM’s presence at 49 Oswald Street by October 2023 also makes it difficult to establish whether there was a simple change from Schearar Developments to IPM Projects. Both may have been involved at the same time in different capacities, or IPM may have taken over some responsibility before Schearar entered liquidation. No contract termination, legal dispute or formal notice confirming a change of builder could be located.

 

Construction recommences

Landgate imagery indicates that contractors returned to the Oswald Street site from at least February 2025 and work continued after that time.

 

Ability Housing has since renamed the project Oswald Boutique Apartments. Its current listing describes seven homes comprising six apartments and one Medium Term Accommodation residence. The apartments remain intended for people eligible for High Physical Support, Fully Accessible or Improved Liveability SDA.

 

The current proposal includes double-brick construction, robust plaster, durable finishes, timber-look flooring, accessible parking, private gardens, a communal lounge and a barbecue area with a pizza oven.

 

Ability Housing now lists the property as “Upcoming” and states that the seven homes are expected to open in summer 2026, which would ordinarily mean between December 2026 and February 2027.

 

A promotional video also shows what Ability Housing describes as one of its Haven@49 apartments in Innaloo, suggesting that at least part of the internal fit-out has reached a presentable stage. However, the complex is still officially described as upcoming and should not yet be recorded as fully open or occupied.

 

Current position

49 Oswald Street is not simply a stalled construction site anymore. It is a long-delayed Specialist Disability Accommodation project that was abandoned and deteriorating by December 2024 before contractors returned during 2025.

 

The apartments were originally expected to open in late 2021 but are now not expected to open until summer 2026, approximately five years behind the original advertised date.

 

No public explanation for the lengthy delay could be located. The available evidence records Schearar Developments against the 2023 forward works, IPM Projects signage at the site by October that year, Schearar’s liquidation in August 2024, the abandoned condition of the building in December 2024 and the eventual return of contractors during 2025.

 

What remains missing is any clear account from the companies involved explaining why construction stopped, how long the property remained abandoned, who took responsibility for the unfinished work and what repairs were required before construction could safely continue. For a project intended to house people with high physical support needs, the lack of publicly available information about its builders, construction history and five-year delay is difficult to ignore.