Billionaire developer Harry Triguboff's personal investment portfolio tops 9400 apartments

The billionaire apartment developer Harry Triguboff is expanding to Canberra.

It comes after buying his first site in Melbourne.

Triguboff told The Australian he expects the upswing in buyer interest to continue, saying it kicked off with the change of government and removal of Labor’s threat to wind back negative gearing tax breaks.

During the housing market downturn Meriton retained many of its completed units taking Triguboff's personal investment portfolio to more than 9400 apartments.

Triguboff’s portfolio is split equally between serviced apartments and leased units.

His hotel arm expanded in the slower market.

“It’s no good selling if the market doesn’t want to buy,” Triguboff told The Australian.

He is surprised at how quickly the market has rebounded — from selling five units a week in January to about currently around 30-35 a week.

The inner workings of his business empire has been revealed by The Australian after the lodging of financial accounts with the corporate regulator by the Meriton company.

Meriton made a pre-tax profit of $485 million in the 2018 financial year, according to its recent accounts lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

Meriton’s revenue reached $1.84 billion.

It made a net profit of $340 million after paying $145 million in company income tax.

It was down from the previous year when Meriton made $384 million net profit from $1.79 billion revenue.

Triguboff did not take any dividends.

The Meriton accounts noted “although the residential selling market continues to be stagnant, both rental markets and serviced apartments continue to be in strong demand and underpin revenue increases for 2019”.

Meriton’s accounts shows it owns $2.97 billion worth of land and buildings.

It had $162 million in current loans and $195 million in non-current loans out to buyers of Meriton apartments through vendor financing.

The accounts showed Meriton having about 12,000 apartments at various stages of development.

Its annual report had noted about 8200 investment units that Triguboff maintained ownership, which was now substantially higher.

Meriton has net assets of more than $3.8 billion and retained earnings of $3.6 billion.

The Meriton accounts also show it owns $265 million worth of structured financial products.

His Canberra purchase is a project site with permission for a 17-level, five-star hotel in the city’s CBD.

Meriton bought the site in Canberra’s Civic precinct at 40 Allara Street for $23 million from the Australian Unity Property Income Fund reportedly in an off-market deal.

It is part of Harry's “rapid” expansion plans for the Meriton Suites arm.