Apartment tsar Harry Triguboff mulls industrial property bid

Harry Triguboff was so concerned about the property market that he eyed a switch to industrial.

Harry Triguboff sees a rough patch for apartments. Picture: Adam Yip.

Billionaire apartments king Harry Triguboff was so concerned about the state of the residential property market earlier this year that he investigated moving into the industrial sector for the first time.

The 86-year-old tells The Australian the market has been tough for residential developers for some time, and that he is keeping more of the units he is building to rent out than ever as negativity about house prices takes its toll on sales at his Meriton development empire. So much so, that Mr Triguboff pondered a radical change in strategy for the first time in almost six decades.

“In my opinion the bottom of the market was the beginning of January, that is when I took the least deposits,” he says. “So I looked and thought maybe I should build industrial now.

“But I promise you the income I could get from that is no better than I have now from apartments. Everybody is saying what a terrific boom there is in industrial, but I tell you the return is the same for me. They are saying we are going broke (in residential), and they are in boom! Maybe I should compare notes with (Goodman Group chief executive) Greg Goodman about this.”

Mr Triguboff is a prominent member of the inaugural edition of T he List — Australia’s Wealthiest 250, published in a special magazine in The Weekend Australian this Saturday, March 30. He is one of 68 property identities who appear in The List, the biggest study of wealth undertaken in Australia.

In the edition, Mr Triguboff talks about his future at Meriton and the involvement of his 20-something grandsons Daniel and Ariel Hendler in the business he established in 1963 and turned into the biggest apartment builder in the country.

He reveals that while he is keeping up his apartment building pace this year, he now has 4500 serviced apartments and another 3700 units which are being rented out. Meriton also has the equivalent of another 400 units in commercial properties at its projects, including Woolworths and Coles outlets, childcare centres and even pubs.

That combined number could reach 10,000 this year, Mr Triguboff says. “I’ve been leasing 150 flats per week. Suddenly I have many flats ready but I can’t sell them all. I never planned it this way.

“I hope the market improves so it will be less, but I can’t keep empty land because you’ve got overheads and you have to pay council rates and all kinds of taxes. Whereas if I build I can rent it, so it is better.”

Though he is 86, Mr Triguboff says he only missed one day of work last year and regularly takes work home with him on the weekend. “I love my work,” he says with enthusiasm.

He believes that tougher market conditions make him important to Meriton and says he owes it to the company’s loyal staff, some of whom have been in the business for three generations, to stick around for some time yet.

Mr Triguboff believes having his two grandchildren working alongside him in a market correction will prove to be a valuable experience for them.

“The grandkids are OK but I think in a way it is good it is tough times, because when it is good times you don’t learn as much.”

For the full interview with Harry Triguboff, see the inaugural edition of The List — Australia’s Wealthiest 250, published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday.