Triguboff is managing director and sole owner of Meriton, Australia's biggest apartment developer. He's overseen construction of more than 76,000 apartments, including some of the tallest residential towers in Sydney and Brisbane. The company owns about 5,000 rental apartments and has a hotel division, Meriton Suites.
Harry Triguboff's net worth of $12.9B can buy ...
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Triguboff's fortune is derived from his ownership of Meriton, Australia's largest apartment developer. Meriton has built more than 76,000 units and has about 5,000 hotel suites, according to its website.
The Sydney-based business had net assets of A$21.5 billion ($15.2 billion) as of March 2022, according to the company.
The valuation is based on its reported book value and reflects the exchange rate on May 24, 2022. The calculation was updated on this date to reflect the latest book value and this led to an increase in the net worth valuation of more than $2 billion.
Triguboff declined to comment on his net worth.
Harry Triguboff was born in Dalian, China, to Jewish immigrants who fled Russia after the rise of Vladimir Lenin. He grew up in the Russian community of Tianjin, south of Beijing. The family moved to Australia in the year Triguboff turned 15 years old. He went to high school in Sydney at Scots College, and then received a degree in textile engineering at Leeds University in England. After graduating, he worked in textiles businesses in Israel and South Africa, before returning to Australia in 1960.
The billionaire spent his first few years back in Australia running taxi and milk delivery businesses and, in 1963, used a loan to buy a piece of land in the Sydney suburb of Tempe, where he built eight apartments. He was 30 years old and had three employees.
Triguboff parlayed the project into Meriton, today Australia's biggest apartment developer, by building the tallest blocks he could get approval for in the suburbs. He sold shares of Meriton in 1969 on the Australian Securities Exchange, and delisted the company four years later.
He almost gave up on Australia in 1975 after a downturn in the property market curbed demand for real estate, leading him to scale back on construction, sell assets and plan a move to the US. Then a site he had purchased for $150,000 received approval for a 30-apartment development, and Triguboff revised his strategy to buy during slumps, sell during booms and only build in areas with infrastructure that can support new development.
The billionaire's Meriton Group was named Australia's biggest home builder in 2014 in a HIA-Colorbond Housing 100 survey.
Triguboff has received offers from Canada and British pension plans, as well as Chinese investors, to buy part or all of the company. He says he plans to give control of the business to his family.