Richest 250 2021: How The List billionaires stay in shape poolside
The wealthy can be highly secretive. But they don’t hold back when they are asked about their tips for staying fit.
The wealthy can be highly secretive about most things. But they don’t hold back when they are asked about their tips for staying fit, even in their advanced years.
Take billionaire apartments king Harry Triguboff, who religiously swims 20 laps of breaststroke daily at the age of 88.
When The Australian asked to photograph him at his private swimming pool for this year’s edition of The List — Australia’s Richest 250, Mr Triguboff responded: “Which pool? I have three swimming pools at my house.”
The Meriton Apartments founder added an indoor pool after buying his next door neighbour’s house in Sydney’s Vaucluse a few years ago, adding it to the two pools he already had.
Just around the Sydney Harbour foreshore at Point Piper, Robert Magid, a hotelier, property developer and investor, is equally forthcoming about his exercise habits.
The youthful-looking Mr Magid turns 80 in October and recently took up swimming in his waterfront pool — and has even bought himself a wetsuit to cope with the cooler months
“I try to do 20 freestyle laps, but I don’t have to be an Olympic swimmer to do 20 of those laps because the pool is not large,” he says of his 13m harbourfront pool.
So how often does he swim?
“It depends if it is summer or not. I often do it four times a week, after tennis.”
Hotel tsar Arthur Laundy, whose wealth is valued at $1.4bn, is also on the cusp of turning 80. Unlike his compatriots, he has eschewed a Sydney harbourfront home for the delights of the Parramatta River in Sydney’s west.
A one-time rugby union player, Mr Laundy has stuck to the same exercise routine daily for the past two decades, swimming 10 laps of the 30m pool in his apartment complex using both freestyle and backstroke.
“There’s also a gym and bike riding,” he says. “I don’t do anything too exciting in the gym, but I do a lot of stretching.”
Mr Triguboff, Mr Magid and Mr Laundy were photographed for a feature in this year’s edition of The List, which is published this Saturday in The Weekend Australian. The trio are among 60 members of The List from the property sector, an industry that has had contrasting fortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Triguboff builds about 3000 apartments annually, and the value of his rental properties is increasing, helping offset a softer hotel market that has seen occupancy rates at his serviced apartments business fall as interstate and international travel stopped.
He has pivoted from plans to build serviced apartment towers at several sites in Sydney, choosing instead to convert them to residential complexes, with demand for hotel rooms from tourists still soft during COVID-19.
“I had to drop some prices, but they stayed full. I can afford to do that and we are doing that with some of the units we keep building as well. You have to be able to change your strategy sometimes, but mostly you have to keep working,” he said.
“And the market was slower at times, and we had to drop some prices for sales, but we kept going.”
Mr Triguboff is proceeding with plans for a serviced apartment complex in Melbourne, but may delay plans for a similar project in Canberra.
Mr Magid is in a similar position with his luxury Pier One Hotel in Sydney, as well as The Lindrum in Melbourne. But Mr Laundy is invested in one of the hottest property sectors. His Laundy Hotels business has gone from strength to strength, and has snapped up several new pubs recently. He paid $40m for the Lennox Hotel in Lennox Heads in February, and $35m for Sydney’s Bidwill Hotel in December.
He recently told The Australian that he is on the hunt for more pubs in the booming NSW north coast area around Byron Bay.
“We are always in the market for something,” he said.
The full 2021 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, March 20 and at theaustralian.com.au/rich250
