Harry Triguboff’s Meriton profit jump defies high-rise gloom

Property king Harry Triguboff’s empire is running smoothly even as the housing market tanks.

Meriton is ramping up production in Queensland where it has the Iconica project in Surfers Paradise.

High-rise king Harry Triguboff is riding the strong recovery from the pandemic, with his Meriton operation generating a jump in operating profits to $457.3m over the last financial year and showing little signs of slowing down.

The development billionaire is ramping up production in Queensland, even as he says that new projects are difficult to get out of the ground in Sydney due to planning restrictions.

His Meriton operation, which spans both residential sales and service departments, with a sideline in fixed income investing, has been one of the big beneficiaries of the reopening economy, and he is even putting up prices.

The real strength of the Meriton operation comes from selling apartments through thick and thin, with the billionaire using his heft in the market to get projects underway while other developers are hamstrung by high costs, slow pre-sales and supply problems.

Smaller rivals have dumped apartment schemes, and even listed companies have slowed unit releases down.

These factors make the Triguboff model somewhat unique, but his rising revenues indicate that sales are holding up in key markets in Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Meriton is also pushing into Melbourne and has tapped Hickory to build the city’s first Meriton Suites Hotel, at 140 King St.

The billionaire has also signalled that he wants to get going in NSW as he has a substantial land bank and won 4.5 out of five stars in the iCIRT trustworthy rating with Equifax, a drawcard for buyers.

Triguboff in his office at Meriton. Picture: John Appleyard

The company’s 2022 accounts show that Meriton also has a long lead on rivals who are now forging into build to rent apartments, as it already sports the largest portfolio of units in the country.

Meriton reported a 5 per cent lift in the number of investment units, including serviced apartments, it held to 14,036 units at the end of June.

In a nod to this side of its business, Meriton is opening its second apartment block in Gold Coast’s Main Beach and Surfers border, and it will be the equal tallest apartment block. It will not have any serviced apartments and many units will be kept as the billionaire expects prices to rise in the area.

“We will keep half the block which should go up a lot in value,” Mr Triguboff said. Meriton will soon kick off another major development on the Gold Coast with about 853 big units and will add another 392 units to a Broadbeach complex.

He is most bullish about the sunshine state. “When we talk about how many people move to Queensland, we must really count how many young ones are moving. Queensland used to attract old people. Now it attracts young people,” he said.

But in a sign that even the giant company is finding it hard to get projects started right away, there was an 8 per cent fall in the number of units in development, slipping to 11,428 units.

Overall, the operation had a 71 per cent jump in profit before income tax to $457.3m. It had a 6 per cent increase in revenue to $1.34bn with its investments, mainly in units and serviced apartments, spinning off $554.1m.

Meriton is benefiting from the increasingly tight residential rental cycle and disclosed that residential vacancy rates in its units had fallen from 2.6 per cent in 2021 to just 1.4 per cent in 2022.

This comes as borders reopen, and more residents pour into city towers, with the pressure prompting rental increases.

The company is now heavily into hospitality, as many of its complexes also sport short-stay accommodation. It now has 20 service apartments, with a further five under construction under the Meriton banner.