RBA must cut rates to encourage more Australian buyers: Harry Triguboff – RBA rates decision countdown
Meriton boss Harry Triguboff has demanded that the RBA cut interest rates to encourage more local buyers of his apartments following the completion of another project in Sydney.
Triguboff says interest rates are currently too high.
“He [RBA governor Glenn Stevens] has to drop [the cash rate]. I can’t believe it’s that high,” Triguboff said as the red ribbon was cut on his 24-storey Vantage apartment block in Rhodes in Western Sydney.
Triguboff says further rate cuts would increase demand for his apartment projects.
“[Rate cuts will make them] a little cheaper and will bring buyers back into the market,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“It got to a stage [last year] where I had 85% of purchasers who were Chinese, and now it’s down to 65%.
“We’re very happy with Chinese coming here, but we must have our own.”
According to Triguboff, there is strong demand for apartments in Sydney, as long as they are priced correctly.
“Gone are the days where I had to fight with the newspapers and tell them this is the best way to live,” Triguboff says.
Prices in the 263-apartment block start from $415,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, with two-bedroom apartments priced between $585,000 and $840,000 and three-bedroom apartments priced from $825,000 to $1.25 million.
Speaking at the opening of the apartment project, NSW premier Barry O’Farrell said Meriton’s contribution was greater than the taxpayer bill of $22 million and pledged further such co-operation in the future.
O’Farrell said the NSW government did not have enough money to “remediate all the crook sites around NSW”.
The Vantage tower is part of a wider Meriton precinct development, which will include childcare facilities, a new public park and shopping centre links.
Triguboff says he bought the Rhodes site for “practically nothing” because no one else was willing to buy the polluted land.
He says he was captivated by its position overlooking the Parramatta River.