About 500 investors with deposits of up to £20,000 for apartments in the North West have been hit by the collapse of a Lancashire-based property company.

Dylan Harvey Residential has been placed into administration, which is being handled by Mark Getliffe and Diane Hill, insolvency partners at the Manchester office of CLB Coopers, the accountancy firm.

DHR acted as sales agent for several apartment schemes in Manchester and the North West.

The creditors include 500 residential property investors, who paid about £6.5m in deposits of between £5,000 and £20,000 apiece. Most were for off-plan apartments in developments that had not been started because of the downturn in the property market.

The developments in Manchester included Clippers Quay in Salford Quays, Zararchie Tower and Bengal Mill in Ancoats, and phases two and three of the Fresh Salford project.

Financial Times, The Times