Harry Triguboff

“I tried all my life to make housing affordable. The more affordable the house, the more money I make.”

“My properties are very good income-producing buildings, so I will have a very good stream of profit even if I can't sell.”

“This is a lifetime job. You don't look at it, you know, now and then. It doesn't really matter. When the market comes down, then I buy my land very cheaply, so I make my money on that.”

“If we allow more development, it will bring housing affordability.”

“We looked into and tested the Airbnb website and found the inquiries generated were at price points substantially lower than the market is prepared to pay us directly. It was clear that there were no real synergies between the level of our offering and what Airbnb clientele is looking for.”

“The newspapers were against me. They were telling me that the Australian dream was a home. But that dream became worse and worse as they had to live further away from the city. My dream became better as we could build higher and higher.”

“The Chinese were good to us. The war years for us Russians in China were very good years.”

“My interest is in the Wests Tigers. Nobody can support a team that is all the time on the bottom; that's a waste of time.”

“The government should spend more time on promoting tourism in Sydney.”

“Local councils are hostile to large developers and think that, by doing this, they are standing up for the community. But they're wrong.”

“I'm easy. Very easy. I'll tell you why I am easy. If someone is no good, I get rid of them. It is no good being tough on somebody who can't do the job. If he can do the job, then there is no point in being tough with him.”

“We had a Jewish school; we had a Jewish club. My father was a main donor. My mother was on the committee of the school.”

“I have never laid a brick in my life. But my people have laid more bricks than anybody else put together. Because I know how to pay.”

“I would consider selling the whole company; I wouldn't like to sell just part of it, but on the other hand, I have a grandson intent on following my footsteps and another grandson in another couple of years.”

“It's a very difficult business, and I'm very interested in the future of it after I'm gone, and I thought that if I can't produce a strong management team here myself, and I can find better management elsewhere, then I should sell it.”

“I've changed Sydney. It's my city, my people. I'm theirs. We belong to each other.”

“People have lots of money in super, but they have no money in the bank, and the super funds are not built to help people buy property.”

“I employ thousands of people, maybe 5,000 or 6,000. In my mind, they are all doing well. Because if they are not doing well in their minds, I'm not as strong as I could be.”

“I looked around, and I saw cottages everywhere. I thought it was time they lived in apartments.”

“In this business, you don't have to be an architect or an engineer or a brick layer. But you have to understand how the money flows. That you can only understand if you're on the site.”