Why I’m buying all these sites: Harry Triguboff03 Sep 2014
Harry Triguboff
I read in the newspapers that people are surprised at the amount of land that we buy.
The reason is because it is so difficult, and so tedious, to get approvals. So I have to have a big stock of land to produce between 2000 and 3000 apartments a year.
The problem is very simple: it lies with the planning in NSW. If our planning system was as good as it is in Victoria and Queensland, NSW would definitely be producing twice as many new homes as in Victoria.
Everyone wants Sydney – that is why our prices are so high. The NSW Department of Planning had big plans to redo the whole system under former premier Barry O’Farrell, but that didn’t work because the Labor Party would not support the changes in the upper house.
The tragedy was that for three years the people in the Department of Planning were all the time involved in changing the system.
Nobody needs to change the whole system; all we have to do is make adjustments and make them constantly. In a business we always adjust to meet the market and the planning of the state is no different. They must be prepared to change all the time.
Our weakness in NSW is that the state has decided people want only houses, not apartments.
That is complete nonsense. We sell more apartments than houses; people pay more for apartments than for houses and apartments are rising in price more than houses are.
The idea that people don’t like apartments needs to be knocked out of politicians’ brains once and for all.
Then the politicians will be happy to support development, and so will the aldermen in councils, and so will the council planners. If all of them were in favour of development, which is what the community and the NSW economy needs, then Sydney would regain its rightful place.
Why do they build as many apartments in Melbourne as they do in Sydney? Nobody would ever claim that Sydney is not a more attractive or desirable place.
The answer is simple: we just can’t get approvals here in NSW. That is why I have this stock of land. All the time I have to argue with the authorities to get projects through.
Every time I make a minor change I am delayed by a month or two. And nobody is responsible for the number of delays that cause high prices.
The present government is not interested in detail and we still have to hear how the department wants to manage the planning.
I have been waiting for a long time. I have been waiting for the minister, the director-general and the premier and I haven’t been getting very far.
I feel certain they didn’t just pick on me, because everybody else has the same experience.
It is very hard to understand how, with our interest rates so low, and with foreigners so keen on buying our product. that our production has not gone up. It’s still the same.
We’re delighted when NSW construction is up by 10 per cent, but it should be up by 50 per cent if we look at what is needed.
When we talk about houses being dear and our children not being able to buy, the answer is very simple.
The parents are very happy that the prices are dear because they have all made money.
And the children? Where were they when the prices were depressed? I didn’t see any children wanting to buy anything at all.
Now that the prices have gone up they want to buy. I am very happy that they want to buy. I want them to buy.
And I agree it’s difficult. So parents have to help.
I am glad to say that they are helping, but they have to help more.
That is how the Chinese do it; all the family chips in. My Chinese buyers are 20 to 25-year-olds without much money, who are helped by the family. We should do the same.
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http://www.afr.com/p/business/property/why_buying_all_these_sites_harry_RRKZb0fUXFckS8NgzrqmRP