Harry Triguboff Points Out Why Housing in Australia is Going So Wrong

Harry Triguboff and his building and development empire, Meriton, have been in the thick of cycles, booms and busts in the property industry yet survived them over the past 60 years.  Today, Harry shares his 15-point assessment as to why the housing industry is failing – and how there are real solutions.

As the founder of a fully Australian-owned company, he has completed 100 percent of every development started – over 80,000 homes – and focussed on bringing together all the elements that make home ownership achievable. Through his vision and leadership, he has helped secure a future for the people of Australia through real estate opportunities.

Harry talks change:

• Lower Government charges. They are way too high
• Planning departments are introducing rules which add to the cost of building an apartment which we don’t need
• The banks need to give builders finance
• Many builders have gone broke so the government must get involved. If a few builders go broke, it’s OK but if many go broke the government must get involved
• The government does not care what the cost is to build and what price can be obtained for a finished product. This must change. The government must get involved to ascertain the problem.
• Where the rules are out of date, they must be modernised and made useful.
• The planning department constantly talks about the quality of units, but no one complains. The complaint is that builders can’t deliver a product at an affordable price.
• The RBA might be perfectly right according to the rules. But the rules must be brought up to date. We must stop companies and people going broke. The RBA, APRA, together with builders must find solutions. A way must be found to suit all.
• We must have affordable houses like they do everywhere in the world. In some places we must have homes which are mobile homes. I built many in the past and people accepted them
• Politicians will always be elected if they help the people. There is more to politics than a seat in government. Politicians are more interested in keeping their seats to remain popular
• The country has already accepted many migrants, and in order to grow we need to accept more. The problem isn’t migration; it’s the prolonged lack of supply and the ability to deliver
• Rental demand has never been so strong, with rents rising fast. More people are sharing accommodation which means the combined spending power is much stronger. People in tight rental markets have always joined together to ensure they have suitable accommodation and when I was growing up it was no different. I too shared a house with other families.
• Rentals have been rising for a while but now we are seeing our apartment prices rising too. As building costs increase and supply diminishes, we are seeing prices rise across the board.
• At Meriton, we will always see sales. When banks tightened lending, we stepped in with vendor finance and made money much easier to access. We made it possible for more people to enter the market.
• Buyers’ commitment to home ownership has consistently translated into strong repayment behaviour. We have very little bad debt.

We have created a pathway to home ownership that offers buyers greater flexibility – particularly when it comes to finance. Meriton has helped create more property millionaires than any other developer in Australia and I’m in the position to help secure a future for people in this country.  Selling homes to the Australian people has always been the driving force behind Meriton – If we can do it, the government can surely make the appropriate changes to improve the Australian housing market.