Harry Triguboff, Managing Director of Meriton, has been named Property Person of the Year 2009 and will be presented with the award at a gala charity fundraising dinner.

Mr Triguboff has helped shape Australia with billions of dollars of development.

Mr Harry Triguboff came to Australia at the age of fourteen. He drove a taxi and set up a milk run to finance his first property venue, a block of units that he built in 1963. His company is now the nation’s largest multi-unit home builder – with work starting on 1,800 new Meriton homes in 2008/2009. Mr Triguboff has been responsible for the construction of 50,000 new homes over the past 47 years.

Mr Triguboff’s projects provide high quality living at affordable prices. His developments are well known for their recreational amenities such as swimming pools, gymnasiums and tennis courts.
Even during the global financial crisis Harry Triguboff’s business has remained strong – continuing to provide jobs, economic activity and affordable housing.

Recent business highlights include Meriton's purchase from Babcock and Brown/Payce of the largest remaining parcel of the Victoria Park site in Zetland, for $109 million. Meriton estimates that this site, together with other recent acquisitions from companies such as Mirvac, Stockland and weLive, will provide the foundation for at least another decade of construction and development opportunity.

Meriton has also completed the final stages of its Crown Square redevelopment on the former ACI glassworks site in Waterloo in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, which now boasts some 2,650 apartments, integrated communal parkland, numerous meticulously restored heritage components and a brand new shopping centre.

While Mr Triguboff’s business has traditionally focused on Sydney, he has now expanded into the Brisbane property market. In fact, in the midst of the global financial crisis he is the only developer to commence construction on not one, but two high-rise residential apartment towers. The first, ‘Soleil’ in Adelaide Street, will be Brisbane's tallest building standing 234 metres, containing some 464 apartments. However it won't be the tallest for long, because Meriton has just received approval to construct a second 236 metre tower, containing 568 apartments.

Meriton has also continued to develop the highly successful "Brighton on Broadwater" precinct on the site of the former Sundale shopping centre in Southport on the Gold Coast.

Also on the Gold Coast, Meriton has launched the latest of its highly successful serviced apartment properties, containing nearly 200 apartments at Broadbeach. This increases Meriton's portfolio of serviced apartments' to 1,400 dwellings.

On top of this Meriton continues to provide long term rental accommodation across a portfolio of some 2,500 apartments - the vast majority of which are owned by Meriton - making it Australia's largest private provider of housing.

Remarkably, all of this has been achieved without the resort to debt, without any joint venture partners and, in many cases, without pre-sales.

Mr Triguboff is committed to supporting and funding significant philanthropic interests including the Colorectal Cancer Fund Research Fellowship and the Sydney National Cancer Foundation. He has funded extensive medical research including St Vincent’s Hospital for research into arthritis, the Heart Research Institute for research into anti-inflammatory drugs, the Murdoch Institute for research into the early diagnosis of childhood diseases and also research into breast cancer. He is also a major benefactor of many schools and other charities in Sydney.

Mr Triguboff is the first person to win the Property Person of the Year award twice – he first won the award in 2003. He was made an Australian Member of the Office of the Order of Australia in 1990.

The Property Person of the Year Award, now in its 7th year, will be presented to Mr Triguboff at a gala charity dinner on Wednesday November 4, 2009. Proceeds will be donated to Warrah Disability Services and St Vincent’s Prostate Cancer Clinic.

In the past this award and event has raised $1.4 million for charitable causes.

The past recipients are:

Mr Wal King AO, Chief Executive, Leighton Holdings

Mr Greg Goodman, Group Chief Executive Officer of Goodman

Mr Bill Moss AM, Group Head and Chief Executive Officer of the Banking and Property Group, Macquarie Bank

Mr Lang Walker, Chairman of Walker Corporation

Mr Liam Forde, Chief Executive of Baulderstone Hornibrook.

We invite you to attend the Property Person of the Year 2009 charity dinner:

A booking form is available here (238K PDF).

Supporting charity

The Warrah Society, is a not for profit organisation which provides residential accommodation, education and day services for over 100 people with intellectual disabilities in Dural, NSW.

The St. Vincent's Prostate Cancer Centre at St. Vincent's Clinic, Sydney. This centre has one of the largest medical research units in the Southern Hemisphere (in association with the Garvan Institute).