Sales lift keeps Meriton engine running

Meriton was close to stalling some apartment tower projects but sales have lifted, says billionaire Harry Triguboff.

Billionaire developer Harry Triguboff. Picture: Adam Yip

Meriton was close to stalling some apartment tower projects but a small lift in sales allowed a reprieve, according to billionaire founder Harry Triguboff.

Meriton had seen a lift in the market over six weeks, with sales volumes improving by more than 30 per cent, but from a “very low base”, Mr Triguboff told The Australian.

“The Australian buyers are coming back, which is the best news we had for a long time. But the prices are not going up yet. Only the volume of sales is improving,” he said.

Earlier this month Mr Triguboff said prices for Meriton’s new projects had dropped by about 15 per cent over the past year.

Mr Triguboff said he would begin marketing a project of 111 units at Mascot in Sydney and was pushing ahead with the 74-floor Ocean tower on the Gold Coast. He will also sell an older block of 68 apartments in Sydney’s Rhodes that had been held as an investment. The units would be sold individually, with Meriton expecting to realise about $80m, Mr Triguboff said.

If sales had not improved, Meriton would have delayed some projects, he said.

“Eventually, I would have put it on hold,” Mr Triguboff said of the new developments.

The housing market has been hit by increasingly restrictive home loan conditions and the desertion of investors and foreign buyers.

Stagnant wages were worsening the conditions, Mr Triguboff said.

“The problem at the moment is with local buyers. The banks have new rules and the buyers don’t qualify,” he said.

Some overseas buyers had found funding despite the restrictions, he said.

Mr Triguboff weighed in on the debate around the federal government proposal that migrants live outside Sydney and Melbourne for five years, saying it was unnecessary.

“The movement of people in large numbers from Sydney and Melbourne will grow as the difference in cost of living between the two great cities and the rest is realised,” he said.

“The great thing about our migration system has always been that the migrants could settle anywhere they wanted and could do anything they wanted.”