Property tycoon Harry Triguboff has said Australia should bring in more immigrants and loosen lending and foreign investment rules in order to boost housing prices.
Mr Triguboff, 93, said in an article published on the website of his company Meriton Properties on Monday that the country “needs migrants”, and warned of a “catastrophe in real estate” that he said was making people not want to work hard.
The multi-billionaire, who was born in China to Russian Jewish parents, also said the government needed to change the rules so foreign property investors could make more money.
“Investors must make a reasonable profit. The Chinese came and lost money, the Japanese came and lost money. They don’t come to lose money,” Mr Triguboff said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has presided over record-high net overseas migration of more than 1.6 million people since May 2022, but Mr Triguboff claimed the government “actually wants migrants but does nothing about [it]”, and shrugged off concerns about assimilation.
“Of course, everyone wants to come here but we need to learn to choose the right people,” he said.
“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.”
Mr Triguboff said the stagnant real estate market, where housing prices have fallen 0.7% nationwide from their peak after successive interest rate rises, meant the country was in a “terrible mess”, and argued that restrictive bank lending was partly to blame.
“It’s no good writing that prices are dropping. We must also say what must be done for prices to rise,” he said.
“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?
“At Meriton, we have never had so many people coming to look but all are so indecisive. Another reason they don’t buy is because the banks make it impossible for them to get a loan. The banks must give loans otherwise both the banks and the buyers go broke. It is just not sustainable.”
Mr Triguboff is Australia’s largest apartment developer and has a net worth of $32.28 billion, up 9% this year and eclipsed only by mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s $39.01 billion on the Rich List.
He has repeatedly called for higher immigration in recent years, including after last year’s federal election, and has donated millions to both major parties.
In April last year he said the housing crisis had “little to do with immigration”, and in October 2024 said the major parties should “stop attacking foreigners” and fast track development approvals, claiming that the solution to the housing crisis was more immigrants and more homes.
Five months before that Mr Triguboff complained that Australia needed more migrants “from everywhere” since he was seeing fewer Chinese buyers for his apartments.
Meriton has built more than 80,000 apartments on Australia’s east coast, including 5,000 in Sydney that it owns and operates as rental properties. It also leases privately owned apartments in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast through Meriton Property Management.
The rental income has allowed Mr Triguboff to offset lower sales during economic downturns, and in 2024 he revealed he was only putting one-third of his new apartments on the open market due to a lack of Chinese buyers.
Header image: Left, Harry Triguboff (Meriton Apartments Photographer, Public domain). Right, a Meriton apartment building in Southport, Queensland (Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The post Australia’s richest man calls for more immigrants to boost housing prices first appeared on The Noticer.
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