Billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff has slammed’silly’ interest rate increases, claiming that they will not be enough to keep property prices from rising.
While speaking at the Property Council’s Gold Coast Market Outlook lunch on Friday, the Meriton Group managing director blasted the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The RBA has raised interest rates nine times in a row, bringing the cash rate to 3.35 percent, and has warned that more rate hikes are on the way.
‘They say that as interest rates rise, prices will fall, but I don’t believe that,’ Mr Triguboff said.
‘If there is nowhere for people to live, prices will rise regardless.
This is a lucky country… We make silly little mistakes, but never major ones.
‘We make thousands of silly little ones.’
The 89-year-old is worth approximately $22.5 billion and has stated that he is constantly expanding his property portfolio because he believes property prices will continue to rise.
It comes despite forecasts that values will fall by an average of $100,000, or 11%, this year, according to National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster.
He claimed that banks were adding to the pressure by only lending to developers who sold 50 to 100 percent of their stock up front.
‘I’ve kept 6,000 apartments and am adding over 1,000 new ones every year because I believe prices will rise, so why sell them all at once?’ Triguboff stated.
Mr Triguboff is expanding his property empire aggressively, having recently completed the Ocean Project in Surfers Paradise.
He is already planning to start a new project at Iconica in Broadbeach, stating that he prefers to work in Queensland.
‘We’re working with councils that want to work with us; they’re a part of us, and that’s the only way we’ll succeed, developers, if they’re with us,’ he said.
After a run-in with a council in Sydney, Mr Triguboff blasted them for being uncooperative and wasting his time.
‘The big problem in Sydney isn’t that they’re against me; in the end, common sense triumphs; it may take a few years, but we get there,’ he says.
‘(The problem is that) it wastes all of my time… using my efforts to find a way to build, and I never forgave them.’
His remark comes after he told NSW councils to go to hell for twice rejecting a proposal to build high-density apartments in Little Bay.
Meriton has launched a new bid to construct a massive development in the small Sydney beachside suburb, a rezoning proposal that previously included 1,900 units up to 22 storeys.
The real estate conglomerate used a recently launched NSW government housing scheme to avoid the local council and independent planning panels.
Randwick Council was recently notified by the Department of Planning that plans had been lodged, but no further information about the proposal or applicant was provided.
Mr Triguboff founded Meriton 60 years ago and believes the controversial Little Bay development addresses Sydney’s critical housing shortage.
The billionaire issued a blunt warning that unless developers are given permission to build more homes, housing supply will continue to deteriorate, driving up prices.
‘If the government really needs housing, they should approve it,’ Mr Triguboff told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I’m not sorry; they can go to hell. They want production; they must ensure that I do not go bankrupt.’
Meriton currently constructs approximately 2,000 apartments in Sydney each year.
Meriton submitted its new plans as part of the state government’s newly launched Rezoning Pathways Program, which aims to free up land for 70,000 new homes in ‘fast growing’ areas by next year.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced that the government would begin 10 land rezonings, the majority of which would be in western Sydney, far from Little Bay in the city’s south-east.
Developers who applied to be a part of the pilot program were required to include a minimum of 1,000 new proposed dwellings in metropolitan areas.
Meriton has yet to reveal how many units are included in its revised proposal for Little Bay.
‘We have submitted proposals at Little Bay and Carlingford that meet the requirements of the program, which is critical in order to get the additional housing that we require,’ a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The problem is that even if they approve the rezoning, we still have to go to the council to get building permits, which could take years. We need building permits right away.’
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