War on inflation turns to war on home supply: Harry Triguboff

We have too many politicians who are brilliant at counting votes, but that’s about all they care about. Let’s look at the real world and stop the wave of bankruptcies.

Meriton founder Harry Triguboff says the approval process for units needs to be faster. Picture: AAP

When I first heard of our international war against inflation I was concerned about the consequences. I had every right to be concerned. Because of this fight, people have lost confidence. People are frightened to spend.

We hear about the inflation dropping. But confidence fell twice as quickly. Why don’t they count how many businesses went broke? How many people went broke? How many banks have had to come to the rescue?

So, many people lost their equity. We can’t keep quiet. The interest rates must drop and government charges must follow. I hear, also, that house prices must drop. But too many builders and developers have already gone broke for that to happen.

And what does the average person care if inflation has been fixed? The average person is going backwards. We should be looking at how much the average person’s wealth has dropped.

One solution is to start bringing in more migrants. At once. And not only nurses. We need to bring people who will build the nation. Get the approvals for them issued now, I say. And, where will they live?

Well, we know there are many places where we can build. There is capacity for 30,000 dwellings in coastal Little Bay and 25,000 are on government land. Why are they not approved? Why do we try to approve Rouse Hills – also in Sydney – but where people don’t want units, instead?

Meriton founder and managing director Harry Triguboff.

We also need faster turnarounds. Governments around the nation need to make it a condition that units must be approved in 60 days, as is the case in Queensland. They need to stop promising rubbish.

And lenders should give people money if they have equity. They should not look for reasons for not giving them money. Give them money and hope, not reasons for denying finance.

All parties need to stop attacking foreigners. They are not buying anyway, so the governments are getting nothing in the way of revenue. We need to let builders find solutions, not show them 50-year-old rules which stop building.

We have too many politicians who are brilliant at counting votes, but that’s about all they care about. Let’s look at the real world and stop the wave of bankruptcies. Let the Europeans count and worry about inflation.

As we get migration started again, know that it takes just one day to approve a migrant’s visa, but remember it takes years to build a house. We must start building houses now. We must be ready for the migrants to come now.

So, to build one million houses, as is planned, will take many years. This, in fact, has got nothing to do with councils. It is the building process that will take many years. We built 5000 houses in Sydney’s Matraville and it took us eight years.

We should prepare as, on the ground, bricklayers need time, not arguments.

Once again, to the central bankers: we are sorry that we have not reached the figures for inflation. But forcing inflation to drop and making so many people bankrupt is not the solution.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the banks should not stop financing purchasers. Some are making up new reasons for not approving loans, which we have not heard of before.

If banks don’t give money to build, how can we advance as a nation?

If we are afraid that there are not enough workers, then we should take more workers that build offices and infrastructure and put them into building homes.

Harry Triguboff AO is managing director and founder of Meriton Apartments.