The apartments in the Pounamu complex, in Queenstown, are now in the control of lawyers acting for the ANZ-National bank in default of loans held by Pounamu Trustees Two Ltd, a company in which Mr McEwan and his son Kelly each own a 25% share, according to Companies Office records.
Pounamu Trustees is not in receivership or liquidation, however the ANZ has been appointed as the "receiver of income" under provisions in the mortgage documents, and now holds the certificates of title for apartments 8, 12 and 16, the bank's lawyer confirmed yesterday.
Mr McEwan's multimillion-dollar property empire, under the McEwan Group umbrella, has unravelled in recent months and been hard hit by the credit crunch, with several major ventures having been sold off or placed in the hands of receivers.
South Canterbury Finance, as principal lender for the proposed redevelopment of Dunedin's former chief post office in Princes St, last December took over the project from Mr McEwan, being owed about $7.5 million.
South Canterbury is considering several mortgagee tenders for the 1930s building, which includes expressions of interest from other developers around the country.
Mr McEwan, who was recently adjudged bankrupt over other debts of about $900,000, had promoted a Hilton hotel development in Dunedin worth more than $80 million when completed.
Local investors have been estimated to be out of pocket $2 million-$3 million with lost deposits.
Pounamu Trustees Two Ltd was incorporated in July 2007 and is still a registered company.
Its majority, 50% shareholder is a Hamilton woman.
The Pounamu apartments project in Queenstown has a history of mortgagee sales, some dating back to late last year. Several other Pounamu apartments, separate from the ANZ action to recover its debt from Mr McEwan, have been put up for mortgagee tender recently, including two in February.
Other mortgagee auctions are scheduled this month.
The ANZ lawyer said yesterday there were no plans "as yet" to put the three former apartments of Mr McEwan and the other shareholders up for mortgagee sale.
He declined to say how much the defaulted loans on the three Pounamu apartments were worth, saying it could take two to four months "to sort out".
He also represented "other [separate] parties" who had mortgages on other Pounamu apartments.
The lawyer said all three Pounamu properties were managed apartments under Pounamu Trustees and were rented out.
He understood Pounamu Trustees was not the original builder-developer, but had owned the three properties following several previous sales.
Recently, the number of forced mortgagee sales in Queenstown have risen, with at least a dozen properties a month being on the market. This year there is expected to be an increase in such sales, estimated at 60 last year, with prices already in general depressed below capital values by at least 15%, industry sources have said, but no accurate figures are kept by real estate agencies.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand in the past has said the Wakatipu mortgagee sales were instigated by banks, but more often finance companies foreclose on defaulting or overstretched borrowers, with up to 80% of mortgagee sales expected from combined managed apartments and commercial development sectors.
