MERITON PROFIT INCREASE DEFIES HIGH-RISE GLOOM
HIGH-RISE king Harry Triguboff is riding the strong recovery from the pandemic, with his Meriton operation generating a jump in operating profits to $457.3m over the last financial year and showing little signs of slowing down.
The development billionaire, 89, is ramping up production in Queensland, even as he says that new projects are difficult to get out of the ground in Sydney due to planning restrictions.
Meriton is also pushing into Melbourne and has tapped Hickory to build the city’s first Meriton Suites Hotel, at 140 King St.
The company spans both residential sales and serviced apartments, with a sideline in fixed income investing.
Its strength comes from the billionaire’s ability to use his heft in the market to get projects underway while other developers are hamstrung by high costs, slow pre-sales and supply problems.
Overall, Meriton had a 71 per cent jump in profit before income tax to $457.3m in the year to June 30. It had a 6 per cent increase in revenue to $1.34bn with its investments, mainly in units and serviced apartments, spinning off $554.1m. The company is also benefiting from the increasingly tight residential rental cycle and disclosed that residential vacancy rates in its units had fallen from 2.6 per cent in 2021 to just 1.4 per cent in 2022.
The business reported a 5 per cent lift in the number of investment units, including serviced apartments, it held to 14,036 units at the end of June. But in a sign that it is finding it hard to get projects started right away, the number of units in development slipped 8 per cent to 11,428 units.