Cue a greenies meltdown.

Gray is co-founder of the uber-successful Graya, whose celebrity clients include surfing legend Mick Fanning, footballer Darius Boyd and musician Example.

From trophy homes snapped up by rich-listers such as Flight Centre’s Graham and Jude Turner to apartment towers where penthouses break the $20m barrier, Graya is a force in the South East Queensland construction sector.

So when Gray, who started the company with younger brother Rob in 2012, talks about what Brisbane should look like in five to 10 years, he has skin in the game.

“The Goldy is more flexible than Brisbane, they’re pretty pro-development and let us push the boundaries,” says Gray, 38.

“There are a lot of roadblocks in the industry, and different height limits depending on where you are, so the easiest way to increase density is to increase the height.

“Across the board, if every zoning increased by a couple of levels that would help projects work.”

As we dine at Mosconi, on the same street as Graya headquarters, Gray concedes his company – which has a staggering $328m worth of projects on the go – won’t be alleviating the housing crisis.

If you can afford a Graya residence, you’re not sleeping rough.

But he says easing constraints will benefit all developers.

“In the last couple of years councils have become a bit more lenient, less combative and more collaborative, because there’s a housing crisis – although our boutique projects aren’t going to solve it – they’re trying to get more projects to happen, but without concessions on size and height, things aren’t getting built,” he says.

There’s also the presence of a certain militant union which industry veterans have slammed as “thugs” who’ve forced up costs and crippled productivity.

Gray is cautiously unfazed.

“The CFMEU were involved in a couple of our projects, we had chats with them, but we’re not signed up to any agreement and at the moment we’re probably just below the level that interests them,” he says.

“With a change of (state) government and all the media stories, it’s definitely quietened down a bit, but we know as we grow in size, there’s no doubt they will become a focus; it’s just part of business and it’s about managing the relationship.

“A lot of our subcontractors have been with us since the early days so as we’ve grown, they’ve grown. They’re proud of their work and would rather do our higher-end projects than hospitals or a jail.”

Graya – the brothers’ nickname when they were students at Ipswich Grammar School – started small, flipping houses in the western suburbs.

Their first renovation on a $500,000 home in Indooroopilly netted a profit of $150,000 each.

“We were stoked,” says Gray, who gained finance experience in their father’s quantity surveying firm while studying construction management at QUT as Rob was becoming a carpenter.

“We spent 300 grand on the renovation, with Rob on the tools, that was all the money we had, and we made a bit of profit, then bought others, each slightly bigger.

“We also bought a couple of units off the plan from developers I had relationships with from my previous (quantity surveying) job and made some upgrades and sold them for more.”

It was a high-risk strategy for two lads in their 20s, and their parents Stuart and Davina Gray, originally from South Africa, were apprehensive.

“I think we give them grey hairs,” Gray laughs.

“They’re pretty conservative, very risk-averse, and some of the stuff we do is always testing them but now they are starting to trust us.”

Sibling rivalry is not a factor, Gray says, and the pair live close to each other in New Farm. Andrew and his wife Larissa and their young daughters Grace and Lila are in Harcourt St, while Rob, wife Meghan and son Hayes are in Julius St.

“We get on well,” Gray says.

“We still have our moments, but we split the business so we’re in different areas, I’m more in the development and art design side and Rob’s more construction and marketing. It took us a while to figure out who does what but it’s all good now.”

There’s a definite aesthetic to a Graya property – be it Scorpia, the three-level Greek-inspired home in Hamilton which Jude Turner snapped up for $10m in 2023, or Kloud, a 12-storey apartment tower underway at Palm Beach which tennis legend Ash Barty has bought into for almost $4m.

Some might call it futuristic, with curved lines, bold exteriors and minimalist interiors, but Gray describes it as “a bit different” and a “luxury living benchmark”. While more than 60 projects have been completed, using in-house architects or outsourcing to the likes of Joe Adsett and Tim Stewart, houses are taking a back seat to apartments.

“When we were doing houses, a lot were in Paddington and Bardon with character rules so we were limited with our creativity and couldn’t change the facade,” he says.

The cottage renovated for Darius and Kayla Boyd in Agars St – subsequently sold for $4.2m in 2022 – is a case in point.

“With architecturally designed houses, there’s a lot of detail, they’re very tricky, it’s almost like you can build an apartment block for the same amount of management,” Gray says.

“At one point we were doing 15 houses at once and it was way too much. The houses we do now are passion projects, like Mick Fanning’s in Tugun.”

Asked if they have turned away clients, Gray says, “Yeah, like all the time.”

“There are conditions – we want to design with our architects, manage it with our development managers and build it, so if someone comes to us with a good block and we get on with them and they’re happy for us to run the whole process, then we will look at it seriously,” he says.

Graya sometimes partners with other developers, including on a James St project designed by Richards and Spence (of Calile Hotel fame) which will include a four-level basement, two levels of retail shops and restaurants, with office space above.

To grow their business, the brothers rely on a handful of retired developers and company directors for capital injections, with no names mentioned because, Gray smiles, “I can’t give away all our secrets."

With their black-and-white signage seeming to stretch from one blue-chip location to the next, it’s easy to forget Graya is 13 years young.

Have older companies bristled and wondered, as I put it to Gray, “who are these upstarts?”

“I think at the start everyone was super helpful and super friendly,” he says.

“A lot of well-known builders did help us out, we’re grateful for that, but then once you take that next step and become competition it changes very quickly.

“But saying that, Brisbane’s pretty small, there’s only so many developers in the high-end space and we get along with pretty much all of them.

“We have the viewpoint that if everyone is doing really nice product then it’s pulling all the prices up for the rest of the developers.

“We’re always trying to, in a friendly way, outdo each other.”

Just how big does Graya hope to become?

“I don’t think we’d go national, there is just so much to do here,” he says.

“It’s surprising when you chat to developers in Melbourne, the sales’ numbers aren’t strong so it’s hard to get good projects to work.

“Even a lot of the buyers for our projects are coming up from down south.”

Gray describes today’s buyers as very educated. The word “demanding” seems more apt.

“You could tick nine out of 10 boxes but if you don’t tick all 10, you get stuck with new projects that are not a success.

“Since Covid, people want home offices, wellness areas like a gym and sauna, wine cellars so they can entertain at home, so that’s where we have to get creative with space so we can fit it all in.”

Given the cracking pace of their success, you’d imagine the brothers Gray could retire right now – in their 30s. Nice work if you can get it.

“I think I’d get bored,” Gray says.

“And the thing is, we really love it, you’re not sitting around doing the same thing – there’s site acquisition, closing deals, sourcing finance, development approvals, then building it.

“We want to keep working as hard as we can for the next five to 10 years and see where we get to, then take a breather.”

As for what Brisbane and the Gold Coast will look like then, Graya properties could be even more ubiquitous than they are now.

“Hopefully,” Gray says.

“With councils giving concessions, there’s a lot of impressive projects, so we’re pretty confident where it’s headed.”

Mosconi

164B Arthur Street, Fortitude Valley

Gigli (pasta) with Rayner’s Italian sausage, radicchio, pecorino, walnut