Delfin, formerly the Development Finance Company was an Australian business carrying out residential developments. In the 1990s, the company was acknowledged to be the developer of the "best Real Estate project in the world" by International Real Estate Federation and was "widely recognised for innovation in developing quality new urban communities". It initiated a number of major urban developments across Australia before it was acquired by Lendlease in 2001.[2]
History
The company was established as the Development Finance Company by John Marks in 1953. DFC became a public company in 1957 and was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1959. The purpose of DFC was to serve as an "investment banking service" that would "assist Australia’s industrial development by providing long-term finance and permanent capital to Australian companies."[3]
DFC entered the real estate development market in 1969. Via an indenture signed by its subsidiary, Delfin Management Services Pty Ltd and the Government of South Australia, Delfin built a real estate development called West Lakes. West Lakes is in the upper estuary of the Port River, known as the Upper Port Reach, to the north-west of the