Meriton founder Harry Triguboff says he has done “more than anyone else” to expand Australia’s housing supply, insisting that providing people with a roof over their heads has been the central purpose of his life. His comments came after millionaire businessman Dick Smith accused him of greed.
Triguboff, Australia’s second-richest person with an estimated fortune of $34.1 billion, said he had remained focused on the property industry for more than six decades.
“Rich” means “growth” to me, and “growth” means “winning,” he said. “The more I fought over 60 years, the more I won and the more I built. To this day, I am still working, still contributing and still fighting. I am still doing what I have done my entire life. The extra zeros simply help put more roofs over people’s heads. It is about the people; it always has been.”
The 93-year-old property developer said he believed he had made a greater contribution to Australian housing than anyone else. “I have never rested on my laurels and, when I make up my mind about something, I am a dog with a bone,” he said. “Sadly for those who get in my way, I am not all bark.”
Triguboff said he had recognised the coming housing shortage long before it became a national crisis. “I realised there was not going to be enough housing in the future. The government was screaming ‘oversupply’ while I was fighting to build more,” he said.
He said Meriton had supplied more than 80,000 homes, but argued that the company would have needed to build at least twice that number to prevent the shortage Australia is now facing. “I would have supplied only half as many if I had not fought the system,” he said.
“I know there will never be another Harry Triguboff and there will only ever be one Meriton. Nobody could start today the way I started more than 60 years ago,” he said.
Triguboff maintained that Meriton would not have delivered as many homes without challenging the rules and institutions that governed the property market.
He also pointed to his early adoption of different housing models. “Built-to-rent and serviced apartments may seem like post-millennium innovations, but I was doing both in the 1990s,” he said. “You had to respond to an ever-changing market, and it was useful to have alternatives when conditions changed.”
The Meriton founder said Australia would need further policy changes if it was to address the housing crisis.
Meriton founder Harry Triguboff says he has done “more than anyone else” to increase Australia’s housing supply
The property mogul said governments must reform housing laws to help Australians through the crisis. Pictured is one of Triguboff’s Meriton apartment developments in Sydney
“My job now is to work on the problems holding housing back. Too often, that means fighting governments and the banks. It would be far better if we could work together,” he said.
Triguboff said many outdated laws, regulations and pieces of legislation would have to be modernised before Australia could achieve meaningful change in housing.
He argued that current conditions were damaging the industry and making it harder for workers to live in major cities. “We are keeping skilled workers out, reputable developers and builders are going broke because of exorbitant construction costs, and essential workers are leaving—particularly in Sydney—because they cannot afford to live here,” he said.
“How is any of that driving the market in the right direction?”
Triguboff has previously said that rising house prices and increased immigration were vital to Australia’s long-term future.
“If prices keep dropping, buyers will disappear. It is a natural instinct to adopt a wait-and-see approach. The mindset is: ‘Why buy today if it will be cheaper tomorrow?’”
He added: “As people stop buying, they stop working hard. What is the point of working hard if prices are falling?”
Triguboff said Australia’s population would need to continue growing to counter those pressures and give the housing market further momentum.
‘This country must grow. It’s too big to be left in its present state.
‘To develop we need more people, but we argue who should come. When they do come here, they mix very well with the local people.’
But Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith accused Triguboff of utter greed.
It’s a sign of utter greed from one of our billionaires, because he’s already worth over $20 billion dollars, and he just wants more money,’ Smith said.
‘He’s got incredible political influence, and he’s encouraging politicians to have record numbers of immigration so he can make more money.’
‘I don’t understand it. He could never spend his money; he’s in his 90s!’
‘I’m pro-immigration but at levels of 70,000 a year which would level off our population at 30 million,’ Smith said (Australia’s population hit 28 million in June).
‘Our present rate puts that number at over 100 million by the end of this century which is when our grandkids will still be alive … and not many people believe that’s a sensible number.
‘You can’t grow forever – our system of capitalism requires endless growth but that’s impossible.
‘If we planned now and went to 70,000 immigrants a year, then our birth rate is less than replacement level because Australian families are sensible.
‘They realise that having too many kids make it too hard for them to buy houses, which I believe should be a given right in Australia.
‘That’s now impossible for a lot of young people, and that’s because we’ve had such incredible population growth.’
Smith also suggested there were some more cynical reasons behind Triguboff’s comments, pointing to his property portfolio as an example.
‘He pushes for more immigration so he can sell more units; I think he owns over 1000 units that he rents out to people who can’t afford their own,’ he said.
‘This incredible difference in wealth really worries me; we have thirty per cent of our population living pay packet to pay packet with no savings at all, and then you have this billionaire worth over twenty billion who’s constantly pushing the government to get more people in so he can make more money.
‘Harry – you have enough money. You don’t need any more!’
