One couple who put a deposit on a $600,000 plus apartment in May saw their 150-square metre future home reduced to 94 square metres. The Mehajer development in John Street, Lidcombe. Purchasers were told that the 64 apartments in the original eight-storey development at 42-44 John Street, Lidcombe would now house an additional eight flats on each floor. The deputy mayor will be selling the new apartments to be fitted onto the revised floor plan for $720,000. His company could walk away with an extra $45 million if he succeeds in selling the entire building.

The apartments are scheduled to open in two years. Salim and Aysha Mehajer with Missy Higgins, centre, who sang at the wedding. Credit:Facebook His company, Sydney Project Group Pty Ltd, is also developing 36-40 John Street, Lidcombe. Mr Mehajer lodged an application last September to combine both sites and is now proposing a 14-storey complex, taking in 192 residential units, 16 commercial units, and basement parking for 283 vehicles. Many of the SkyPoint Towers buyers are Australian Chinese or Australian Koreans.

Purchasers were told by letter to meet with the sole agent, Dean Kang of Grace Partners Real Estate, to discuss if they wished to continue with the deal. They were given until last Wednesday, August 12, to decide. They have not been offered any compensation for the lost space. The contacts they signed explained there could be alterations made to apartment sizes. Mr Mehajer would not talk about the development but suggested contacting his legal representative Ramy Qutami at Sydney law firm Madison Marcus.

Mr Qutami requested a series of questions about the Lidcombe development on Monday afternoon but said he was awaiting instructions. Mr Mehajer has come under heavy media coverage since his extravagant wedding on Saturday in Lidcombe blocked traffic and caused a national sensation. His family has become one of the biggest developers in the Auburn council area after Lebanon-born father Mohamad Mehajer quit his job at the Arnotts biscuit factory and got into the building trade. Mehajer snr was sentenced to 3½ years in jail in December 2013 for conspiring to cheat and defraud the National Australia Bank of more than $3 million. The court found a Mehajer loan application included false documents intended to present his financial position as "much rosier than it really was". It came to light as part of a police investigation into a $150 million fraud linked to the murder of businessman Michael McGurk, people-smuggling and false passports. There is no suggestion that Mehajer snr was involved in the other matters.

He was released last month. Mehajer jnr is one of seven children. He attended Trinity Grammar School but left to complete his final secondary years at Arthur Phillip High School before entering the family business.l In the years since his father was jailed Mehajer jnr has become one of the area's biggest landowners. According to his September 2014 declaration of pecuniary interests to the council, the 29-year-old deputy mayor has interests in 18 investment properties in Auburn and his own home. They include three residential properties and 16 commercial properties, including a suite of medium-rise residential and commercial developments in the John Street transport hub/shopping precinct.

The family company negotiated a $6.5 million deal with the municipality to redevelop 13 John Street, a council car park, into a combined residential/commercial complex. But on December 4, 2013, Mehajer asked the council to refund half the company's $650,000. In closed sessions, councillors first rejected his request before agreeing to it at a second vote. Labor councillor George Campbell, who voted to oppose the request, said the refund was "effectively a loan".