Property developer Harry Triguboff rejects the r-word but says central banks are ‘playing with fire’

Meriton billionaire Harry Triguboff says inflation can’t be tamed with interest rate rises and blames labour shortages for rising prices.

Harry Triguboff says he does not believe Australia will fall into a recession but says central banks are “playing with fire” as they attempt to contain inflation.

The Meriton billionaire told a development conference in Sydney that inflation could not be tamed with interest rate hikes and instead blamed labour shortages for rising prices.

“So far what they have been doing is a waste of time,” he said. “We have not killed inflation.”

But he claimed that he was not concerned about price rises, with the worker shortages the biggest issue. “Our problem is we don’t have enough workers,” he said, calling for a lift in immigration. “I say we have to bring a lot of people here who want to work.”

Mr Triguboff said the country was not in recession and would avoid a slowdown. “I don’t think we will have a recession,” he said.

He wants a larger population.

Harry Triguboff says the nation will not slide into a recession.

“We better grab whatever we can while we can,” he said. The developer declined to nominate a population target but said that it was difficult to build, partly because of worker shortages.

“I can’t build now because they’re not here,” he said, adding it was almost impossible to profitably buy land and build in Sydney.

He said that governments in Queensland were more friendly but complained they did not know the profit margins of developers when they imposed extra rules.

Meriton is buying more sites in Queensland, partly as it can get good prices in Brisbane, he said.

“Victoria is not as interesting either,” he said, with a tougher climate and lower prices meaning the Meriton operation in the state was small.

Mr Triguboff said that Chinese purchasers had been big buyers of local property and made up 70 to 80 per cent of his buyers during the boom. Prosperity now depended on local Asian buyers who had migrated.

“What still keeps it going is the children of the Chinese,” he said, warning that it was hard for them to gain entry to local universities.

An artist’s impression of Pacific, a twin supertower planned for Surfers Paradise by Harry Triguboff.

Mr Triguboff confirmed that Country Garden – the ailing Chinese development giant – had tried to buy Meriton during the last property boom.

The billionaire asked the prospective buyer to “show me your money” but despite being a “nice company”, the deal was scuttled when they came on to Meriton sites “as though they owned it”.

The billionaire said the failed sale was a blessing as the Chinese property collapse meant Country Garden would not be worth 10 per cent of its boom time value.

“Thank god they didn’t buy our company,” he said.

In a pointer to the future, the billionaire called on governments to look to underused office towers for potential apartment conversions, as Meriton had done in Sydney’s inner suburb of Mascot.

“We must find a way to use them,” he told the conference.