Chinese apartment buyers retreating from Australia: Harry Triguboff

Meriton boss Harry Triguboff says Chinese buyers are retreating from the market due to the high Australian dollar and uncertainty in China as its economy cools.

Triguboff says that in the last three months Chinese buying has subsided, replaced by first-home buyers taking advantage of new state government handouts.

The remarks were reported in a column by Business Spectator’s Robert Gottliebsen following a recent “yarn” with Triguboff.

In May this year Triguboff said Chinese investors had dwindled from 70% of his market to it being a 50-50 split with local buyers.

Triguboff’s latest remarks are in stark contrast to what he told Gottliebsen in February, that the Chinese had returned to inner-city apartment buying encouraged by the high rental yields on offer.

Over the past few years, Chinese owners and investors have account for around 75% of all Meriton apartment purchases.

In July, Triguboff told SBS that Chinese believed apartments in Australia were undervalued.

“They are long-term purchasers. They are not speculators," he said.

Despite the recent drop in demand, the Chinese remain a key market for Meriton, which has a dedicated Chinese site and also offers Meriton Property Finance for offshore buyers.

Meriton Apartments builds more than 1,000 units a year – recently it has shifted its attention to serviced apartments, holding back nearly half of the apartments in its 81-storey Infinity tower in the Brisbane CBD to be offered as serviced apartments.

This year it plans to complete more than 1,500 apartments, having acquired five development in Sydney with planning approval for 2,026 units.

The biggest site is on Thomas Street in Chatswood on Sydney’s north shore, with approval for 547 apartments.

Triguboff has close ties to China.

He was born in Darien, China, in 1933 and spent his early childhood in the Russian community of Tientsin (now Tianjin) south of Beijing.