Meriton's Harry Triguboff shares his business secrets - no cottages, no subdivision

Alistair WalshDecember 7, 2020

Harry Triguboff opened the doors of his private mansion estate in Vaucluse to Channel Seven’s Today Tonight earlier this month.

In a five minute segment Triguboff showed reporter Laura Sparkes around his “little house” while discussing his secrets to success.

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During the slot he revealed his limited edition Bentley (pictured below), one of only two in Australia.

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He discussed how money doesn’t actually mean that much to him beyond making business easier.

“You have to work hard. The more money you have the harder you have to work, that’s for sure. If you think that by having money you work less you soon won’t have it,” Triguboff says.

He tells Sparkes his success came from having one idea and he stuck to it.

“I never built even one cottage. I never went into subdivision. I never went into commercial. I only stuck to one thing,” he told Today Tonight.

“I saw that was where the movement was. And I saw it 50 years ago, not today. And I had lots of fights because they were telling me how Australians had to have a quarter acre block but I told them that’s not true. Some do and some don’t.

“It used to be the dream. So what? They can’t do it.”

He says the apartments are like his babies and he loves them all.

Triguboff says part of the secret to his success is having the cash to do what he wants without being badgered by lenders.

“I need money to make money to grow. To buy blocks of land at $100 million a pop you have to have money.”

“It’s very hard if you have to run to the bank to ask for money because they will start telling you ‘can you afford, can’t you afford it? Is it good is it bad’. This way I don’t have to talk to anyone. I have the $100 million and I do what I like.

“When I grew up no one had that kind of money so none of us knew it. It was just the evolution of time. And it is hard to conceive because how much money do you really need?”

He runs the company according to his whims and Triguboff has last say in all decisions.

“I listen to everybody. I ask their opinion I listen to it and then I decide and that’s what we do.”

Having just turned 80 Triguboff plays down speculation of retirement.

“I feel very well. I felt very well when I was 20 and I am feeling very well when I am 80. Mind you I can’t run as fast and I can’t swim as fast,” Triguboff says.

“I think that you should try and do everything you could as long as you can. You work as long as you can, you drive as long as you can, you run around with women as long as you can.

“I will retire when I become useless and I will the first to understand that. And I will be very quick in retiring.”

He says there will no slowing down for him or Meriton.

“The opportunities are bigger, the country is bigger. More money.”

Alistair Walsh

Deutsche Welle online reporter

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