Westpac bank has clamped down on property developer Philip Lindsey’s company Asia Pacific Management for failing to pay its mortgage payments for a Mount Maunganui project.

Almost an entire apartment building funded largely by Westpac is to go under the hammer at mortgagee auction.

Asia Pacific Management could not find buyers to buy its Pacific Apartments off the plans. The building has been completed but buyers are scarce.

Only 17 of the total 70 apartments in the complex had been sold before Westpac called for the rest to be flogged off at mortgagee auction.

There are 53 ‘luxury’ apartments remaining unsold, ranging in size from 55sq m to 441sq m and coming with car parking and storage facilities.

The apartments have floor to ceiling glass to make the most of their views out over the beach on one side and Pilot Bay on the other.

The building is located directly in between Mount Maunganui mountain and the holiday spot’s shopping and entertainment area. It has a gym, spa and outdoor heated swimming pool.

Two commercial units on the ground floor will also be offered at the mortgagee auction.

Bayleys was appointed by first mortgage holder Westpac to market the property. One buyer could buy the entire unsold portion of the building or the units can go singly to be profited from at a later date, the real estate agency said.

“The apartments could then be put back on the market individually further down the track once the market has picked up again,” Bayleys senior commercial agent Robert Platt said.

“In the interim, holding income could be generated from the management and leasing of the apartments.”

Pacific Apartments isn’t the only new-build residential apartment properties struggling in the current market.

Down the road from Pacific Apartments, only 35 or the 65 apartments in developer Robert Donald’s $125 million ‘Eleven’ complex have been sold so far.

Asia Pacific Management is still trading. Mr Lindsey is also a director of Shellins Enterprises and Lincoln Pacific Limited.

The mortgagee auction will take place on Wednesday 9 December at 2pm.