Harry Triguboff

Harry Oskar Triguboff AO (born 3 March 1933) is an Australian billionaire real estate developer, and one of Australia’s richest people. He is the founder and managing director of Meriton and is known as “high-rise Harry”.

As of May 2023, The Australian Financial Review assessed Triguboff as the fourth richest Australian by net worth, estimated at A$23.80 billion, as published in the 2023 Rich List. Triguboff’s net worth was assessed at A$11.62 billion in the 2016 Rich List, making him the richest Australian; yet held the mantle for only one year. In 2021, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$11.3 billion

Triguboff’s fortune is derived from his ownership of Meriton, Australia’s largest apartment developer. Meriton has built more than 77,000 units and has about 4,500 hotel suites, according to its website.

The Sydney-based business had net assets of A$24.2 billion ($16 billion) as of April 2023, according to the company.

The valuation is based on its reported book value and reflects the exchange rate on May 19, 2023. The calculation was updated on this date and this led to an increase of about $3 billion.

Triguboff declined to comment on his net worth.

Table of Contents

Biography

Education: University of Leeds

Harry Oscar Triguboff was born in Dalian, China, to Jewish immigrants who fled Russia after the rise of Vladimir Lenin. He grew up in the Russian community of Tianjin, south of Beijing. The family moved to Australia in the year Triguboff turned 15 years old. He went to high school in Sydney at Scots College, and then received a degree in textile engineering at Leeds University in England. After graduating, he worked in textiles businesses in Israel and South Africa, before returning to Australia in 1960.

The billionaire spent his first few years back in Australia running taxi and milk delivery businesses and, in 1963, used a loan to buy a piece of land in the Sydney suburb of Tempe, where he built eight apartments. He was 30 years old and had three employees.

Triguboff parlayed the project into Meriton, today Australia’s biggest apartment developer, by building the tallest blocks he could get approval for in the suburbs. He sold shares of Meriton in 1969 on the Australian Securities Exchange, and delisted the company four years later.

He almost gave up on Australia in 1975 after a downturn in the property market curbed demand for real estate, leading him to scale back on construction, sell assets and plan a move to the US. Then a site he had purchased for $150,000 received approval for a 30-apartment development, and Triguboff revised his strategy to buy during slumps, sell during booms and only build in areas with infrastructure that can support new development.

The billionaire’s Meriton Group was named Australia’s biggest home builder in 2014 in a HIA-Colorbond Housing 100 survey.

Triguboff has received offers from Canada and British pension plans, as well as Chinese investors, to buy part or all of the company. He says he plans to give control of the business to his family.

Career

From the experience gained in his initial development, Triguboff bought his second block of land in 1963, this time in Smith Street, Tempe, and began building a block of eight units with a partner. He made a profit, which led to a second development in 1968 in Gladesville. At Meriton Street, Triguboff built a block of 18 units which provided the name of the company he registered in developers.

Triguboff is the managing director of Meriton Apartments Pty Ltd. As of 2015, Meriton had built more than 55,000 residential townhouses and apartments since its creation in 1963, making it Australia’s biggest residential property developer. In 2010, Meriton was said to develop an average of 1,000 apartments per year. As of 2015, the average exceeds 3,000 per annum. In particular, Triguboff has concentrated on the Gold Coast and Brisbane in Queensland, and Sydney’s central business district, building more apartments than any other Australian residential developer. He is a proponent that the population of Australia should grow to reach 100 million.

In 2004, Meriton completed the construction of World Tower, Sydney’s tallest residential apartment building. During 2012, Meriton and the owners’ corporation became embroiled in a long running court dispute over major building defects and alleged breaches of their contract, with maintenance issues worth more than A$1 million. Part of the issue related to Meriton, the original builder, being locked out of the development. By 2015, He had built approximately 55,000 residential townhouses and apartments.

The company has been a sponsor of the Wests Tigers (and their predecessor, Balmain Tigers) since 1998. Triguboff committed Meriton throughout the club’s merger period of 2000 and into 2015.

Triguboff donates heavily to political parties and uses his influence to seek policy changes. In August 2010, he proposed that the federal government should insist on Reserve Bank interest rates being dropped to improve housing affordability.