Harry Triguboff’s Meriton seals $200m Macquarie apartment deal

Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Group is understood to have bought Goodman Group’s Macquarie View Corporate Park.

Meriton’s Harry Triguboff says he has seen a rebound in Chinese buyers in Sydney. Picture: Adam Yip

Veteran developer Harry Triguboff has made one of his biggest land acquisitions, paying more than $200 million for an apartment site in Sydney’s northwest in a vote of confidence for a Sydney market awash with cranes.

Mr Triguboff’s Meriton Group is understood to have bought Goodman Group’s Macquarie View Corporate Park at Macquarie Park in a deal which could add to the rapid urbanisation underway in the precinct around Macquarie University and the Macquarie Centre retail precinct.

Goodman Group declined to comment yesterday while Mr Triguboff could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this month Mr Triguboff told The Australian he had seen a rebound in Chinese buyers, with new investors stepping in to pick up the contracts on failed apartment sales. “The rescinding (of contracts) has eased off and we are replacing the buyers,” Mr Triguboff said at the time.

“We are selling 35-40 units a week and they are exchanging quickly and we have lifted prices in some blocks. I had dropped them earlier this year.”

The sale adds another big deal to Goodman’s disposal program where the listed industrial ­landlord has sold industrial and corporate parks after gaining ­rezonings or approvals, with Meriton among previous buyers.

Goodman has been among the savviest of landlords to cash in on the surge of Chinese apartment developers into Sydney. The group has offloaded $2.1 billion worth of sites and settled $800m of these in the year to June 30. Deals were struck with Chinese-backed Golden Horse, JQZ and Australia YMCI, as well as Meriton.

In 2014 Goodman Group commissioned architect Nettleton Tribe to design a plan for the Macquarie Park site at 112 Talavera Road, which currently houses two office buildings and industrial space. The plans included six apartment buildings from 12 to 28 storeys. There would also be nearly 2000sq m of public open space covering about 10 per cent of the total site.

Meriton is expected to begin planning for another large scale staged apartment project on the Macquarie Park property.

The group had paused in buying sites, concentrating on delivering major projects, nearly all of which are in Sydney.

The Macquarie Park acquisition rivals Meriton’s investment at Pagewood in Sydney’s east, where it paid $230m for 16.5ha of land that previously housed ­facilities for British American ­Tobacco and Holden cars. The 3000-unit project, Pagewood Green, to be developed over 10 years, was launched in August when the marketing launch of the 487-unit Allium building chalked up $140m of sales, or 125 units, at prices of between $785,000 and $1.7m.

Mr Triguboff has previously warned that the tougher lending criteria by Australian banks and an increase in property taxes was destabilising offshore buyers. This has co­incided with restrictions in moving money out of China and a surging residential prices in first-tier Chinese cities, keeping investors closer to home.

Up to 30 contracts were rescinded in Meriton’s mostly Sydney towers, with the 10 per cent deposits forfeited earlier this year.

“It was sudden. It has never happened before,” Mr Triguboff said at the time.

Meriton has largely shrugged off the impact of defaults, with Mr Triguboff saying he could keep any such apartments.

Mr Triguboff owns about 7000 apartments. They are a mix of rental units and serviced apartments that are held as family ­investments.