Harry Triguboff says Chinese will replace local apartment buyers in APRA tightening
Apartment construction tycoon Harry Triguboff expects offshore investors to pick up any slack caused by tighter lending criteria to local investors.
"If the banks tighten their lending, yes, that will stop investor demand," Mr Triguboff said.
"But I am not worried. Chinese investors will not stop. I will keep building. Don't worry, the Chinese will come."
Triguboff's Meriton is Australia's largest serviced apartment builder, stepping up its expansion.
"They come here and they want an authentic Australian product and they don't require apartments to be traditionally styled."
Not building for just one tourist visitor group - drawing conclusions from the late 1980s Japanese tourism boom.
"A lot of people built things for Japanese customers. What happens if they don't come any more and when you have built this thing for one customer?" he said.
Mr Triguboff said he enjoyed building serviced apartments because tourism was a big part of the Australian economy.
"Tourism is important because the mines are not going to be here forever."
Macquarie Group joined other banks charging borrowing conditions for property investors with new interest rate changes that took effect on Friday meaning Macquarie customers taking out fixed-rate investor or interest-only loans will pay higher rates than owner occupiers.
Similar moves were made earlier last week by ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank, in response to pressure from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to slow down rapid investor-lead house price growth, especially in Sydney and Melbourne.
But it took just under five hours for 581 off-the-plan apartments in Sydney's Darling Harbour project, known as Darling Square, to secure more than $600 million worth of sales for Lend Lease.
The Australian Financial Review was told the buyers were predominantly local with about a third coming from offshore.
More than half of the weekend buyer were owner-occupiers.
One-bedroom units at Darling Square started at $800,000 while two top-floor penthouses sold for more than $10 million.