Harry Triguboff celebrates 80th birthday with proposed $100 million inner Sydney site acquisition ..... and calls for more rate cuts

Meriton boss Harry Triguboff has celebrated becoming an octogenarian with plans to spend $100 million on a 31,500 square metre industrial site at Mascot in Sydney with plans to build 1,000 apartments.

Triguboff has also called on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates further to help stimulate a recover in the property market.

“There is no doubt that the catalyst for a property market recovery lies with the Reserve Bank dropping rates further,” Triguboff said in comments reported by The Australian.

He says reports of strong price growth in Sydney are confined to selected areas mainly within 10 kilometres of the Sydney CBD and driven by Asian buyer demand.

“The real test for property values will be if China’s economy starts to slow,” says Triguboff.

Triguboff is Australia’s sixth richest man with a $3.95 billion fortune according to Forbes Magazine.

He says the $100 million he will spend to acquire the Mascot site from industrial landlord, the Goodman Group, equals the most he has ever spent on a development site.

The Australian reports that a deal to the acquire the site is "imminent" following "on and off" negotiations.

He spent $100 million on a South Dowling Street site four years ago, the thoroughfare that runs past Zetland, Alexandria, Waterloo and Surry Hills, where most of Meriton’s inner Sydney apartments now stand.

It is his first site acquisition in Mascot, which has a mix of residential, commercial and industrial areas and is also where Sydney International Airport is located.

The three hectare site is adjacent to the Mascot railway station and is currently zoned for commercial mixed-use purposes and has yet to receive residential development planning approval.

In June last year Goodman said the site had potential for 800 to 1,000 apartments and 6,000 square metres of retail space.

It formed part of Goodman's special purpose investment vehicle, the Goodman Trust Australia (GTA), which launched in March 2011 via the acquisition of the ING Industrial Fund.

Triguboff says the project will take around four years to complete and will include a shopping centre, supermarket and other retail.