Highrise Harry ends discounts

By in Australian Property, Featured Article

| 26 comments

Boom! At the ABC:

Billionaire apartment developer Harry Triguboff could not hide his delight at the prospect of an interest rate cut in June and the re-elected Morrison Government’s planned help for first home buyers.

The Reserve Bank has given its strongest hint yet that interest rates will fall, almost certainly at its June meeting.

In the final week of the election campaign, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a scheme to guarantee the deposit of first home buyers who had only saved 5 per cent of the purchase price.

“I won’t have to discount anymore,” he told The Business.

“I sell now probably at a 10 per cent discount and, besides that, I give [buyers] money at 3 per cent and help them with the stamp duty, so I think at first I should be able to get the full price.”

He would not put a dollar figure on what his average 10 per cent discount is.

“It will be very good, it will be a great help to the real estate market which has been very weak, and I think it will give hope or it will give the people the confidence to buy, not to pull out and not to think,” he said.

He believes that there is now a floor-in-the-housing market and “we’ve definitely seen the bottom”.

“I think [property prices] will rise — I don’t think it will be a quick rise, but it will rise.”

The 86-year-old property developer is particularly buoyed by the Morrison Government’s re-election.

“I can already feel the difference,” he told the program.

He said he rang and congratulated Mr Morrison on his electoral win.

“I congratulated him, and he said without my help he couldn’t do it!” he said.

“Which of course is an exaggeration,” he added with a big smile and a laugh.

Meriton sold five apartments on the Gold Coast on Monday following the election.

“The buyers didn’t know whether to go ahead or not, but once they saw the results of the election they are going ahead,” he said.

“The way that Labor ran it they wanted people to lose money, and nobody wants to lose money.

“They’ve said [since the election] that they didn’t explain their policies, but I think they explained their policies very well to have got the number of votes they got.”

Economists and market watchers raised concerns about the Government’s plans, supported by Labor, to help first home buyers who cannot save up a 20 per cent deposit to buy into a market where mortgage stress is already rising.

Perhaps that tingling in his sack is prostate cancer.

Comments

  3. LSWCHPMEMBER

    it will give the people the confidence to buy, not to pull out and not to think

    He said that?? He actually said that people should have the confidence not to think about the biggest purchase they will ever make and that will probably saddle them with massive debt for life?

    He is a truly, truly evil figure. The only upside is that he’ll be dead soon.

  5. ShawnoMEMBER

    Still need a decent job to afford his lofty dog boxes. If wages keep stagnating that 10% discount prob means that you give Dirty Harry another 2yrs of take home pay. What a CNUT.

    • DominicMEMBER

      Never mind — all that money will still not prevent him leaving this mortal coil. How frustrating must that be for him.

  6. Andrew

    God, in all the time you people have been bleating about how there was a housing bubble, you could have bought a place and paid it off free and clear.

  7. Toby

    “…or it will give the people the confidence to buy, not to pull out and not to think,” he said.”

    We retain the confidence not to think! Huzzah!

    Also:

    Don’t pull out now!

    • DominicMEMBER

      I’ve followed that advice several times and it’s cost me an arm and a leg ever since.

  9. kannigetMEMBER

    This is just a confidence game. Labor policy was not going to hurt people who buy Harrys shoeboxes as they are NEW builds. The fact that he had to discount and “Give” people money and STAMP DUTY should be a pretty big indication of what the market is really like.

    The policy change or lack of wont make much difference to peoples ability to find enough money to buy in. Anyone who buys in based on the LNP win have not done their homework and are ignoring the fact prices have been falling for years and labor only really looked like getting in for the last 9 months.

    The only advantage is that the “confidence” in the market will lead to a little relief but as the stream of buyers fail to materialize it will be back to a slow deflation.

    1) no Chinese because of US trade sanctions making china reluctant to allow citizens to interact with US trade partners.
    2) No wage growth
    3) Revisions to serviceability requirements are only minor.
    4) Trade shocks outside our control
    5) Any attempt to resurrect the credit market SHOULD ring alarm bells for anyone loaning money. if you need to stimulate, the economy is not doing so well, so do you risk loaning more into that?

  10. ZuluMEMBER

    So the property PM money is flowing straight to his developer mates & not making it more affordable for Auuies. Whocudanowed.

  11. ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

    A 10% discount on what?
    A totally made up, over inflated figure given to the sales fkwits So they can pretend to give buyers from “Haggling cultures” a “Discount”
    Pfft!,… what a load of Shyte.

  12. Robert

    You might have a happy family, nice house, fine car
    You might be successful in real estate
    You could even be a football star
    You might have a prime time T.V. show seen in every home and bar
    But you can’t take it with you

  13. BubbleyMEMBER

    Is nobody going to mention that Highrise Harry has a direct line to the Prime Minister of Australia?

    This is the most horrific part of the whole post.