“HIGHRISE” Harry Triguboff  is poised to hang up his Gold Coast development hat after a 31-year, 16-tower run. Australia’s apartment king, the owner of the Meriton group, has signalled that the final tower in his Brighton on Broadwater project at Southport is likely to be his last on the Gold Coast.
He is still to decide on a starting date for the tower, which will have more than 500 apartments and will be his 17th in the city. The 80-year-old developer yesterday said the Gold Coast market was too volatile compared with his home base of  Sydney.
He said the Gold Coast development industry needed assistance. “Sydney doesn’t have the booms and busts of the Gold Coast  they’re the last thing a developer wants,” he said.
“Sydney is an economically solid, big and old city. The Gold Coast is still building up.”
Mr Triguboff said a solution to the Gold Coast’s volatility problem could lie in the banks adopting a system of differential interest rates. “For instance, if mortgage rates were 5 per cent in Sydney they could be 3 or 4 per cent on the Gold Coast. “Australia, like Europe, is a continent.
Europe is made up of a lot of smaller countries and all have different policies, depending on their circumstances.
“We could do the same across Australia so all areas progress together, not just Sydney and Melbourne.”
Mr Triguboff said Chinese buyers and strong Sydney and Melbourne markets offered the Coast property market the best chances of recovery.
“When the Sydney market is strong people will sell their homes and move to the Gold Coast, where they like the climate and where homes are cheaper. “It’s happened before and it will happen again.”
He said the Chinese, who were very active in Sydney, would  become buyers on the  Coast.
“I’m sure they will come because the city has universities,” he said.
“The parents will buy their children homes, the children will get their degrees and settle here, and the parents will come too.” Mr Triguboff said he had always enjoyed developing on the Gold Coast because the city council was not hostile.
“Many of the councils in Sydney have been very hostile to apartment tower developments but they are getting better,” he said.
“By contrast, the Gold Coast has always been receptive. Even at Robina, where once there were just houses, they have apartment towers.
“Now I see from driving around Harbour Town that higher apartment buildings are springing up there.”
Mr Triguboff built his first Gold Coast towers, the Nelson and Florida, in the early 1980s.
He returned to the city in 1993, snapping up a succession of Main Beach development sites and building eight towers in the beachside suburb.
He then moved on to the Brighton on Broadwater project, a tower in Surfers Paradise, and twin towers at Broadbeach. He  has retained 600 apartments in the Brighton and Broadbeach buildings and is operating them as serviced apartments.

Source: goldcoast.com.au

Subject: Meriton Serviced Apartments Australia