Harry Triguboff is one of Australia’s billionaires who many wouldn’t recognize walking down the street. However, many people would know his company, Meriton, which is Australia’s leading high-rise developer. Walking around the Sydney CBD, all you have to do is look up to see Triguboff’s work. 

Triguboff was born on the third of March 1933 in Dalian, Liaoning, China, to Russian parents. His upbringing looks different to that of many others who appear on the Australian Rich List. Triguboff spent the early part of his life in the Russian Jewish community in Tientsin, now called Tianjin. He and his family moved to Australia in 1948 when he was 15. He attended the prestigious Scots College in Bellevue, Sydney, famous for educating the former Governor of New South Wales Rear Admiral Sir David James Martin, former Premier of Western Australia The Hon Peter McCallum Dowding and businessmen Albert Edward Harris and Thomas Gregory Parry. Then he went on to study textile engineering at Leeds University in England.

In 1960, he returned to Australia and gained his citizenship in 1961. During his first years back in Australia, he owned a taxi fleet, and a milk run. Triguboff had big ambitions, and in 1963 at the age of 30, he built his first block of apartments on Meriton St, Gladesville, the street being the inspiration for his company’s name. After building his first apartment, he noticed the demand that Sydneysiders had for higher density living and the ability to live closer to work and services. Providing higher density living options became Meriton’s leading business and is the reason for Triguboff’s success. 

Since Meriton’s beginning in 1963, they have built more than 75,000 apartments. Meriton’s apartments focus on providing luxury accommodation in areas where people want to live. It is estimated that Meriton built one in 10 apartments in Sydney. Recently, Meriton has been expanding into mixed developments with offices and residential existing in the same building. Meriton’s most famous building is World Tower in Sydney, which was Australia’s tallest residential building from 2004-2006.

Meriton has won many awards, including Best Mixed-Use Development (2020, 2016), Best Residential High Rise (2014) and Best New Building (2003). 

Triguboff is Australia’s most successful residential property developer. This has led to him being on every Australian Financial Review Rich List since it began in 1983; in 2016, he topped the list and was named the wealthiest person in Australia. Currently, his estimated net worth is $10.3 billion. On the twenty-sixth of January 1990, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and an Officer of Order on the seventh of June 1999. He is the Harry Triguboff Foundation director, which gives about $3 million every year to charity, and he is the Patron of Bowel Cancer Australia. 

Harry Triguboff is frequently known as “high-rise Harry” for his dominance in the world of building high-rise residential living. It is unusual that such a successful businessman named isn’t widely known, but you look at the Sydney skyline, you’ll know the man responsible for many of the high-rises.