Billionaire real estate developer Harry Triguboff says high interest rates for homeowners could stop him from building as many apartments given the difficulty in selling them.
The founder of property giant Meriton Apartments, which has just put the finishing touches on a new $515 million apartment tower complex in Pagewood, Sydney, said it is now harder than ever to sell.
“The sales market is definitely not increasing… and it won’t increase much until we lower our interest rates,” he said. The Australian on Tuesday.
Triguboff sold most of the remaining 275 units in the Pagewood development and leased another 100.
Harry Triguboff, founder of real estate giant Meriton Apartments, said high interest rates for homeowners could stop him from building as many units.
Starting next week, it plans to bring an additional 275 rental units to the market in Pagewood, coinciding with the opening of a 15,000 sq ft Coles supermarket and 23 stores at the development.
Next month it will begin leasing 270 units at Homebush as part of its $600 million Atrium development and will begin closing out the sale of another 270 apartments.
Triguboff recently started building 320 waterfront apartments in Rhodes, a further 300 units in Castle Hill and a staggering 784 units in Carlingford.
On Queensland’s northern Gold Coast, next month it will release a sales release for the $1.85 billion Cypress Palms project, which stands as one of Queensland’s tallest towers at 90 levels.
“The leasing market is strong, but prices are stable,” said Mr. Triguboff.
“Of course, I won’t build that many flats again,” he said, explaining that he started building so many at the same time because of the time it took to get development plans approved by city councils.
“Our big problem, which slows everyone down and I think the Prime Minister needs to be informed, is that no job in Sydney goes smoothly,” he said.
‘Each department is given a set number of days to do something before approval is granted. The matter may take five days but they give them 20 days.’
Starting next week, it plans to bring an additional 275 rental units to the market in Pagewood, coinciding with the opening of a 15,000-square-foot, 23-store Coles supermarket.
Triguboff said “the other problem” is that boards meet very rarely, before criticizing the Reserve Bank for “keeping interest rates high”.
The 90-year-old, whose net worth is estimated at about $23.8 billion, said that while it is good for the government to help people, they need to be given the opportunity to earn more.
“Our people are doing worse financially than before because things in China are not as good as before,” he said.
‘The immigrants we bring must be from all over.
‘Although the Chinese are very good. Many countries have residents who would be happy to come. Many people suffer abroad and are often well educated and used to hard work. We must have both.’
In an opinion piece in Fenruary, Mr Triguboff lamented that property developers in Australia “are broke more than anyone else”.
‘Not everyone can be stupid. That is why I believe that the authorities should consult with the promoters; otherwise we will never be able to meet demand.’
