Property mogul Harry Triguboff seeking apartment development sites to capitalise price slump

Many property owners are unable to proceed with construction due to Covid-19 creating opportunities for others.

Property mogul Harry Triguboff plans to capitalise on an unprecedented 50 per cent slump in the asking price of some apartment development sites. Picture: James Horan

Property mogul Harry Triguboff plans to capitalise on an unprecedented 50 per cent slump in the asking price of some apartment development sites, saying many property owners are unable to proceed with construction due to COVID-19.

The founder of Meriton Apartments, who is personally worth about $15.5bn, said he was looking for exclusive sites in Sydney and Brisbane and was in the process of negotiating several deals.

Mr Triguboff said sales of the 3000 Meriton Apartment units he was presently building on the eastern seaboard were going OK and he had dropped unit prices.

“Land has come down in price, because no one is buying, they [developers] are scared to buy, but I don’t need the banks,” said Mr Triguboff in an interview with The Australian.

“I am looking at sites that are very cheap now in Sydney. I have one in Brisbane to buy. It is very cheap and a very good exclusive site. That is the sort of thing I want to buy.

“I am looking now because some of the sites are now coming down in price. Normally when things get tough the banks force [the site owners] to sell. The banks are not doing that but eventually they can’t just sit and look at it … they will have to sell.

“The big question is how many sites will be lower in price. I can find sites that are 50 per cent lower than they were in Sydney. Most of all it is Sydney, [because] Sydney prices were the highest.”

Despite his acquisition plans, Mr Triguboff said it was difficult to plan future business activities given the federal government was yet to set any dates for the return of immigrants.

Before COVID-19, Mr Triguboff sold about 80 per cent of Meriton units to Chinese mainlanders.

“Now Australians buy more because they can get cheap money,” Mr Triguboff said.

But with net overseas mig­ration predicted to hit reverse this year and into 2022, Mr Triguboff said a shrinking population would create major problems for Australia not just in the housing sector.

NSW and Victoria will be most affected by the drop in immigration, with recent forecasts from the Centre for Population revealing that the national annual growth rate will drop from 1.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 0.2 per cent in 2020-21 — the lowest rate since 1916-17.

“This country was built on migrants,” Mr Triguboff said.

“Right now we are not bringing them here. That makes a lot of problems. Nobody knows when we will bring them here, it is very hard to plan any business. It is very hard, we don’t know if we will have workers and students arriving here. The problem is that officials are very scared to say something in case they have to change their mind.

“Politicians today are afraid to make some mistakes, [but] we all make mistakes and people understand. Politicians are scared.

“We all have to have more guts, [but] it is easy for me to say as I have few debts and no business partners.”

Mr Triguboff criticised Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for her recent closure of the state’s border.

“We can’t just have a few cases and lock borders, they should not be able to do that,” he said.

“For a while, my Queensland serviced apartments were doing quite well, as soon as [Ms Palaszczuk] closed the borders the ­occupancies went down.”

Mr Triguboff said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was doing a great job and the other state premiers should follow suit because he said she had the right ideas.

“Business people are showing more confidence in the economy because when there are corona­virus cases we now seem to be able to work normally,” he said.

“This gives us confidence.”