Harry Triguboff: Meriton boss’s views on Gold Coast development and future tower projects
Meriton boss Harry Triguboff says he expects a flood of towers to begin rising on the Gold Coast skyline in the next decade, including in some unexpected locations. FIND OUT WHERE
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Meriton boss Harry Triguboff says he expects a flood of towers to begin rising on the Gold Coast skyline in the next decade – but don’t hold your breath in the short-term.
The 91-year-old experienced developer, who is current building a pair of multi-billion dollar supertower projects in the heart of Surfers Paradise, says he has “great confidence” in the future of the Glitter Strip.
He’s tipping high-rise and tower development to increasingly move west away from the coastal strip as land becomes harder to come by.
“Things would be a lot better right now but it is very hard for people to get finance,” he said.
“The financing will get easier eventually, though not in a hurry, and the properties will start to go up.
“Right now the banks are not being very helpful and are not lending out money the way they used to which makes it hard but I think we just need to have patience.”
Pressure continues to mount on the Gold Coast property market in the face of record migration, with around 15,000 people moving to the city annually.
Development is not keeping up and tens of thousands of units have been greenlit but never built.
It will front The Esplanade, Ocean Ave and Surfers Paradise Blvd and will have 519 units, plus retail, restaurant and cafe offerings.
It will replace three unit towers – the Monaco, The Shore and The Dolphin, as well as the Pit Stop building, which includes a newsagency and bottle shop, across a 3460sq m site.
Mr Triguboff bought the site in late 2023 for $67.5m
He has spent more than $235m on Surfers land since 2016, with $177m of that since mid-2021.
The developer said it was his favourite place to buy property.
“Surfers has very good sites available, so I buy them,” he said.
“In Sydney they do not approve enough for me, so I have money and I instead use it to buy in Surfers Paradise
“If you look at Surfers Paradise, it is unique, there’s no other place like it which has so many first-class properties in the world, so it is a matter of waiting but I have great confidence in it.
“The biggest issue is that I can build very big projects and to do that you need to have a lot of money whereas most over developers have not got that kind of money.”
Mr Triguboff said he did not intend to begin building Shore “in a hurry” and would begin looking at progressing the project in a year.
It comes as construction ramps up on his two-tower Cypress development which will have room for more than 2500 people across the supertowers of 91 and 76 storeys respectively.
Also under construction on the Surfers Paradise stretch of The Esplanade is Meriton’s Iconica, believed to be worth almost $1bn, which will feature two towers of 78 and 53-storeys respectively and will deliver a further 627 dwellings, possibly accommodating more than 1200 people.
The prominent Iconica location, long held and undeveloped by Singapore-based builder Banyan Tree, was previously home to the Bahia and Beach Lodge towers, which have since been demolished.
Mr Triguboff said he expected high-density developments to begin moving westward.
“At the moment you see people building mostly in the first-class positions but as we get more and more demand, they will start to take positions which are not as good and that is already starting to happen,” he said.
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