Sale of DeTrafford’s Wavelength drags on

A judge will need to clear the Salford site’s title before a sale to the preferred bidder can go ahead.

The vehicle behind DeTrafford’s 421-apartment Wavelength development entered administration in 2022 with debts of around £15m.

Since then, Colliers has been working to sell the site to claw back money for creditors and reignite the scheme.

An unnamed preferred buyer was identified last year, however, the bid was made conditional on securing the site on an unencumbered basis.

A court application to clear the title to pave the way for the sale has been made but administrator Kroll gave no indication of when the process might conclude. Last year, the administration period was extended by 12 months.

Those in line to receive a share of the proceeds should the sale complete are lender Whitecraigs, which is owed around £4m, and some of the investors who paid deposits for apartments at Wavelength.

Around 300 investors paid a combined £9.9m – between 10% and 30% deposits – for flats in the development but no work has taken place, despite planning approval being secured in 2019.

Of these, 139 hold UN1s registered prior to the Whitecraigs security. This puts them in a better position to receive a share of the sale monies than the 131 UN1 holders who registered their charges after Whitecraigs.

Kroll warned that the amount each investor gets might be less than what they originally put down.

Last year, Kroll said it was investigating what had happened to the investor’s deposits.

“The level of deposits taken by the company does not seem commensurate with the level of work completed on the site,” a report stated.

These investigations are ongoing.