Meriton managing director Harry Triguboff blasts interest rate rises, bank requirements for developers

Billionaire Harry Triguboff has blasted interest rate rises, criticised banks and berated uncooperative councils to a packed room of Gold Coast developers. Here’s what else he said:

Veteran developer Harry Triguboff has blasted “silly” consecutive interest rate rises, criticised banks and berated uncooperative councils in a wide-ranging speech to a packed room of aspiring and accomplished Gold Coast developers.

The managing director of Meriton Group, whose estimated worth sits around $22.5bn, was speaking at the Property Council’s Gold Coast Market Outlook lunch on Friday.

Mr Triguboff, 89, said the decade-high cash rate of 3.35 per cent – a result of nine consecutive increases in as many months – was unlikely to sufficiently quash inflation.

“They say that because the interest rates go up, the prices will go down – I don’t believe that.

“If there’s nowhere for people to live then the prices will go up despite that,” he said.

Mr Triguboff said higher interest rates also put further pressure on the tight labour market by prompting workers to shop around for higher wages.

“This is the lucky country … we make silly little mistakes but we never make big mistakes,” he said. We make silly little ones, but thousands of them.”

The Property Council's Gold Coast committee chair Lisa Murdoch questions Meriton managing director Harry Triguboff at the Gold Coast Market Outlook Lunch on February 17, 2023.

Mr Triguboff, 89, is so sure of this long-term upward price trend, he adds 1000 units to his build-to-rent portfolio each year.

“I’ve kept 6000 apartments and I’m adding over 1000 a year to my stock, because I believe that prices will go up, so why sell them all upfront?,” he said.

Sydneysider Mr Triguboff, who recently completed his towering Ocean project in Surfers Paradise, and is preparing to break ground on Iconica at Broadbeach, said his focus had shifted to Queensland because it was easier to get approval.

“We are working with councils who want to work with us, they’re part of us and that’s the only way we can succeed, developers, if they’re with us,” he told the crowd.

“The big problem in Sydney is not that they’re against me – in the end, common sense wins, it might take a few years but we get there.

“(The problem is) it wastes all of my time … using my efforts to find a way to be able to build, and I never forgave them.”

Harry Triguboff atop his 76-floor Ocean tower in Surfers Paradise.

Mr Triguboff said bank requirements, which meant developers had to sell 50 to 100 per cent of their stock upfront to obtain finance, were adding to the crunch.

“The banks are indispensable, but they cause a lot of problems, they believe in things which are uneccesary,” he said.

“We have to pre-sell our units. I mean, I don’t have to, I have my own money.

“So the poor developer sells everything as soon as he can to be able to get the money to build.

Real Estate mogul Harry Triguboff at his home in Vaucluse, Sydney. Photo: Nick Cubbin

“But if you look at prices of housing, they generally go up.

“So really, you shouldn’t have to sell in the beginning, if you can help it.”

Asked how he wanted his legacy to be remembered, Mr Triguboff was uninterested.

“I don’t care too much about that,” he said.

“I do my best. Many times, many organisations come to me and tell me `look, give us some money and we’ll build a building in your name’.

“I say `go outside, there’s so many of mine’, why would I worry?”