Meriton founder Harry Triguboff has declared he has done ‘more than anyone else’ to boost Australia’s housing supply and that his life’s mission has been to put roofs over people’s heads, after millionaire Dick Smith accused him of greed.
Triguboff, who is Australia’s second-richest person worth $34.1billion, said he has never taken his ‘eye off the ball’ in over 60 years in the property industry.
‘“Rich” means “growth” to me. “Growth” means “winning.” The more I fought over 60 years, the more I won, the more I built. To this day, I am still working, still contributing and still fighting. I’m still doing what I’ve done my entire life. The extra zeros just help put more roofs over heads. It is about the people; it always has been.
‘I believe I have done more than anyone else for housing in Australia. I have never rested on my laurels and when I make up my mind about something, I’m a dog with a bone – and sadly for those who get in my way – I’m not all bark,’ Triguboff, 93, said.
‘I realised there was not going to be enough housing in the future. Government was screaming “oversupply” while I was fighting to build more.
‘I may have supplied more than 80,000 homes, but I needed to build at least double that to avoid the shortage we now have. And I would have supplied only half as many if I hadn’t fought the system.
‘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 he wouldn’t have been able to supply as many homes as he has, if he hadn’t ‘fought the system.’
‘Built-to-rent and serviced apartments may seem like post-millennium ingenuity, but I was doing both back in the 1990s,’ he said. ‘You had to respond to an ever-changing market, and it was good to have alternatives when the market changed course.’
He also took aim at other developers, who ‘are dependent on the banks’, and said more needed to change to solve Australia’s housing crisis.
Meriton founder Harry Triguboff said he’s done ‘more than anyone else’ to boost housing
The property mogul said governments must change laws to get Australians out of the crisis (pictured is one of Triguboff’s Meriton apartment blocks in Sydney)
‘My job now is to work on the problems holding housing back. Too often that means fighting the governments and the banks. It would be far better if we could work together,’ he said.
‘I know many of the old laws, regulations and legislation need to be updated if we are going to make significant change.
‘We are keeping skilled workers out, reputable developers and builders are going broke because of the exorbitant construction costs, and essential workers are leaving, particularly in Sydney, because they cannot afford to live here.
‘How is any of that driving the market in the right direction?’
Triguboff has previously argued soaring house prices and higher immigration were essential for Australia’s future.
‘If prices keep dropping, buyers will disappear. It’s natural instinct to adopt a wait and see approach. The mindset is, “Why buy today what will be cheaper tomorrow?”‘
‘As people stop buying, they stop working hard. What is the point of working hard if prices drop?’
Triguboff went on to say that to counter the issue, Australia’s population had to keep growing to turbocharge the market.
‘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!’
