Harry Triguboff Quotes

100 Harry Triguboff Quotes

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If interest rates go up they can afford the smaller apartments, if interest rates go down they can afford the bigger apartments. It has a big effect on what we build.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2011] I have had Chinese buyers for the last twenty years.
Harry Triguboff

If you like it, then the people in the business will like you. And they will work probably better than if there wasn’t this relationship.
Harry Triguboff

All of you must have confidence when you go to a bank. If you don’t have confidence, then the bank gets more scared than you are. So always be confident.
Harry Triguboff

When you work with a bank, you must make him your partner. He must know everything, give him all the problems… Then when he knows your business – he’s your friend. But if you run away from him – you’re gone.
Harry Triguboff

[On how many stories he can build up to – 70, 80, 100 stories?] As high as the councils will approve.
Harry Triguboff

The bigger you become, the harder you work. So if you think that by being bigger you will be able to relax – it’s wrong. So you decide now. If you’re prepared to work hard - okay. If you don’t - don’t bother.
Harry Triguboff

The Chinese think it’s undervalued, that’s why they buy. They are long term purchasers. They’re not speculators.
Harry Triguboff

[In 1963] I looked around and I saw cottages everywhere. I thought it was time they lived in apartments.
Harry Triguboff

In this business, you don’t have to be an architect or an engineer or a brick layer. But you have to understand how the money flows.
Harry Triguboff



[In 2003] The aim in life is not to die rich; it is to spend as much money as you can afford.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2003 on a settlement with the ATO] The amount is so huge you wouldn’t believe it, and I am ashamed to think about it. I didn’t have to settle it, I could have kept on going forever. But time is what you have to value, and quality of life. Why the hell would you want to spend your time at the ATO?
Harry Triguboff

[On the foreign-exchange markets in 2003] I might make half a million or lose half a million, but the sums involved are hundreds of millions – it’s like a game.
Harry Triguboff

[On turning 70 in 2003 and having no plans for retirement] I like what I do. I think I am doing it well, and at this stage my health is good.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2004 on pre-selling apartments] I don’t pre-sell, hoping to find all the idiots to sell to. If there is going to be an idiot, it will be me first.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2004 on Meriton and him at 71 years of age] We are not slowing down; I never slow down.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2005] I don’t know what else to do with myself so I might as well work.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2005] Holding on to apartments to sell is not the only way to operate now.
Harry Triguboff

Our apartments offer the spaciousness of a home with the resort-style facilities of a five-star hotel, and I’ve positioned them on the upper floors so that they get the best views [of Sydney].
Harry Triguboff

[In 2005 on residential housing subdivisions around the Gold Coast] I think the subdivisions up there are what interest me. I don’t know when I will get around to it, but I certainly will. That is what interests me the most now.
Harry Triguboff



[In 2006] Sydney is the city that controls Australia. But they did everything they could to know Sydney. You wouldn’t do that to your worst enemy. You shouldn’t try to destroy the place.
Harry Triguboff

[In 2006] When Sydney prices go up, people go to Surfers Paradise and other places. But when Sydney prices do not go up then the Queensland market goes down. So their market is only as good as Sydney.
Harry Triguboff

Usually it’s me whingeing about council but now I see them whingeing to the judge about me.
Harry Triguboff

[On larger corporations building lots of apartments once but not doing so much now] Well they never really built as much as we did. But they are diversified. And because it takes so long to get approvals they cannot give a steady flow of profits. Once he gets approval he builds and finishes the block and the block is finished all at once. So he may not have any profit for two years on that particular piece of land. Or three years or five years. So that is really no good for the stock exchange because he has to show profits all the time. That’s the beauty of having shops, the shopkeeper sells every day. Whereas in our business it depends on many other things.
Harry Triguboff

[On councils] In the old days they used to say we don’t need apartments…
Harry Triguboff

[Advice to other developers] I think that the important thing is position and the volume that you can sell.
Harry Triguboff

You might have the best position in the world, but if the apartments are very expensive you won’t sell many.
Harry Triguboff

I think that when you sell the prices must be quite reasonable.
Harry Triguboff

Very poor areas have suddenly got much higher prices. That is because of lack of supply. Suddenly poor areas have really done better than the rich areas. Because there is no supply.
Harry Triguboff

[On off the plan apartments] The banks like these presales, that’s a very dangerous thing. Dangerous for the bank, dangerous for the builder, and dangerous for everybody.
Harry Triguboff



I personally sell as I build. I start building and I sell a few and as I go on sell more and more. Hopefully I finish selling as I finish the building. But maybe not. That is the right way to do it.
Harry Triguboff

We always believe that prices must go up. A developer if he doesn’t believe that prices will always going up he shouldn’t be in the game.
Harry Triguboff

[On why off the plan apartments and preselling is dangerous] If prices go down, then the purchasers will not complete. The developer will be stuck with ten percent. If the prices go up, then he has undersold… The banks force him to do it because they think it’s safe, but it isn’t really all that safe. And you can see many, many jobs with these problems.
Harry Triguboff

[On some developer saying they have to presell apartments] They don’t have a big enough capital base, and they’re in a dreadful hurry while the bank is still giving them the money. That makes it unstable.
Harry Triguboff

[On banks] One guy wants the business so he’s nice to you, the other guy has to get back the money… Let’s hope you never see the other guy.
Harry Triguboff

I think you should have a reasonable deposit. So the bank feels better too. And not to hurry. There will always be plenty of buyers.
Harry Triguboff

[On developers and banks] I had very tough times in 1973 with the banks – and I paid them all off. And whatever I had left, I never borrowed again… When you start you must borrow… But as soon as you can get rid of your debt as much as possible so that you control your business.
Harry Triguboff

[In the Sydney unit market in 2011] Supply has never caught up with demand.
Harry Triguboff

[On why Chinese buyers buy in Australia] They say because it is cheaper than China.
Harry Triguboff

[On playing billiards] I have my own rules. I play just to relax, it gets my mind off things. I like it.
Harry Triguboff



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