Harry Triguboff tips interest rates rises to end

The multi-billionaire expects his apartment prices in Sydney and the Gold Coast will jump 10 to 15 per cent in the next year.

Harry Triguboff pictured at his 90th birthday celebrations. Picture: Esteban La Tessa.

EXCLUSIVE

Multi-billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff reckons his apartment prices in Sydney and the Gold Coast will jump another 10 to 15 per cent in the next 12 months, while the scourge of successive interest rate rises on mortgagees is about to cease.

The founder of Meriton, who has developed 76,000 apartments and has just celebrated his 90th birthday, predicts the tenth successive interest rate rise may have been the last for the foreseeable future.

“We cannot beat inflation by raising interest rates but we raised them and inflation is still there. Now the world bankers are panicking. So I am sure that interest rates have stopped going up,” said Mr Triguboff, who is worth around $24bn.

“You can’t have these crazy interest rates going up.”

He also notes that his historic predictions that apartment prices would go up were resoundingly correct.

“I have been constantly writing that our rents would go up. And I wrote that prices would go up after that and they are going up very rapidly,” Mr Triguboff said. “People who bought my units in the past six months have made 10 per cent profit. I was very pleased for them and I say that prices will go up more. (But) unfortunately, our people are not buying enough.

“The prices went up not only because of the Chinese, but also because other foreigners arrived who never bought from us before.” Mr Triguboff says these new foreign buyers of Meriton apartments hail from the UK, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, and America.

Ahead of a 10-day trip to Israel leaving Tuesday night to further celebrate his 90th birthday Mr Triguboff said he would like to see more local Australian buyers.

But Mr Triguboff, who owns 4000 apartments and also manages 4000 apartments for investors, believes there will be more Chinese buyers arriving here once more Covid related restrictions are lifted.

Mr Triguboff, who welcomed business leaders including the former chairman of ANZ bank Charles Goode and trucking magnate Lindsay Fox as well as former prime ministers such as John Howard and Scott Morrison to his recent 90th birthday party celebrations at Sydney Town Hall, as well as the federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton, said apartment rents are rising because of lack of supply. “I went to my (apartment) block at Rosebery in Sydney and out of 260 apartments there were no vacancies at all.

“To build in Sydney is impossible. It takes years to get approval. The approval which is given is out of touch with the type of demand we get. We cannot make changes quickly. The market changes quickly. Because approvals take years they are always out of date.

He said that neither the Liberal nor Labor parties would discuss housing in the lead-up to the NSW state election on March 25.

“And the famous Teals should turn their attending to housing and not talk so much about climate change. That would be more useful.”

He says that production of Meriton apartments has been falling every year for many years but demand for his apartments has been rising for many years.

Mr Triguboff, who apart from Sydney and the Gold Coast, has also developed residential apartment towers and serviced apartments in Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra, said he plans to continue running Meriton at an advanced pace and has a number of towers under development.

However, like other developers he said construction costs are rising by about 15 per cent.