Queensland, NSW local issues hurting development

An artists’ impression of Pacific, a twin supertower project proposed for Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast by Meriton boss Harry Triguboff.

I can see that the property market is moving up, as is natural as soon as rents go up. Prices to buy apartments follow, and it becomes even more sensible to buy if rents go up.

At the same time, interest rates are stabilising and people expect them to remain the same. I believe that the worst thing that could happen is if the central bank raises them again.

We must watch the international influences that are at play. Americans understand that their inflation is governed more than ever before by the price of oil, which is rising.

I believe that consumption must have reached a stage that the rising cost of oil does not affect consumption much. So, on that basis, raising interest rates in America will not help much with inflation, as oil is certainly going up.

Local issues are the real pressure point.

The problem we have now is in Queensland where unions want higher wages and, in effect, less production because they want people to work fewer hours. They are strong for now because Queensland is preparing for the Olympics, which means that labour is in short supply.

The Queensland government must help. We at Meriton always believed in greater production and greater wages. That suits both the employer and the employee. The unions must be able to see that builders and developers are going broke, and that cannot be beneficial to anyone.

Harry Triguboff is managing director of Meriton Apartments.

There is some progress further south. At present councils in Sydney, except for Randwick, see the importance of construction of apartments and things are getting easier. It now makes more sense to buy land in NSW, and we will start buying after stopping for two years.

We have completed three blocks of serviced apartments this month, made up of 650 apartments with 900 rooms.

We will complete 700 build-to-rent units by the beginning of next year. All of them are past the roof stage in Pagewood, Zetland and Homebush. We have commenced building in Epping and 1,000 units in North Ryde are progressing very well.

The NSW government wanted to approve many more units because we were to incorporate thousands of affordable apartments. However, the planning department is still not co-operating.

The NSW government wanted more units in eastern suburbs and this did not happen. The planning department meets us – which is very good – but they always tell us how things can’t be done.

I believe that the NSW Department of Planning is there to approve, not to play politics. In our system, a few people protest and the majority who want and need the accommodation have no say.

That is why I take it upon myself to be their voice.

Harry Triguboff is managing director of Meriton Apartments.