Harry Triguboff is an Australian real estate billionaire, born on March 3, 1933, in Dalian, China.
Known as “High-Rise Harry,” he is the founder and managing director of Meriton, Australia’s largest apartment developer. He remains actively involved in the company’s daily operations even in his nineties.
Who is Harry Triguboff?
Harry Oskar Triguboff AO is an Australian billionaire property developer and the founder of Meriton, the company that reshaped Sydney’s skyline through high-density apartment living.
He earned the nickname “High-Rise Harry” for recognizing, earlier than most of his peers, that apartment towers would meet Sydney’s growing housing demand.
Since founding Meriton in 1963, Triguboff has overseen the construction of more than 80,000 apartments across Sydney, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. He has consistently ranked among Australia’s wealthiest people for decades.
Triguboff still runs Meriton’s day-to-day operations. He has said publicly that he has no plans to retire, telling reporters he intends to keep working “as long as I can think, as long as I am healthy.”
Early Life of Harry Triguboff
Harry Triguboff was born on March 3, 1933, in Dalian, then known as Dairen, in northeastern China. His parents, Moshe and Frida Triguboff, were Russian Jews who fled Russia after the rise of Lenin and settled in China in 1916.
Triguboff grew up in the Jewish community of Tianjin, where his father ran a store trading wool, silk, and leather.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the city in 1937, and after Pearl Harbor in 1941, foreign residents faced growing restrictions.
In 1946, the Triguboff family obtained permission to migrate to Australia after being refused visas by Canada and the United States.
Harry and his brother, Joseph, were sent ahead to Sydney in 1948, though Australian authorities initially tried to exclude them over concerns tied to their father’s wartime activities in China.
Triguboff was ultimately allowed to stay and went on to become an Australian citizen in 1961.
Harry Triguboff Age
Harry Triguboff is 93 years old as of 2026, having been born on March 3, 1933. His zodiac sign is Pisces.
Despite his age, he continues to work daily at Meriton’s Sydney headquarters and remains a regular voice in Australian property and housing policy debates.
Harry Triguboff Ethnicity and Nationality
Triguboff holds Australian nationality and became a citizen in 1961. He is of Russian Jewish descent, with his family’s roots tracing back to Russia before their emigration to China in the early twentieth century.
He has remained connected to Jewish causes throughout his life, including funding programs in Israel through his family foundation.
Harry Triguboff Education
Triguboff was educated at Scots College in Sydney after arriving in Australia as a teenager. He later traveled to England, where he earned a degree in textiles from the University of Leeds.
Following his studies, Triguboff worked in the textile industry in Israel and South Africa before returning permanently to Australia in 1960.
That early career in textiles came well before he entered real estate, the industry that would eventually make him one of the country’s richest people.
Harry Triguboff Career
Early Career
After returning to Australia, Triguboff worked a series of unrelated jobs, including running a taxi fleet and a milk delivery round in Chatswood.
His entry into property came almost by accident: he bought a block of land in Roseville to build a family home, hired a builder he found unreliable, and ended up finishing the job himself.
That experience convinced him to pursue property development seriously. In 1963, he purchased a piece of land in the Sydney suburb of Tempe and built a block of eight apartment units, his first real estate project.
Founding Meriton
Triguboff’s next project came in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville, where he built a block of 18 units on Meriton Street. He named his newly registered company after that street in 1968, and Meriton has carried the name ever since.
Meriton grew steadily through the following decades, expanding from Sydney into southeast Queensland, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
In 2004, the company completed World Tower in Sydney, which became the city’s tallest residential apartment building at the time.
Current Ventures
Meriton remains a fully Australian-owned, family-run company with no joint venture partners.
In 2023, at age 90, Triguboff oversaw the opening of new Meriton hotels in Canberra, Melbourne, and Liverpool, expanding Meriton Suites to more than 6,200 apartment rooms across 23 properties.
In April 2026, Meriton released 792 built-to-rent apartments for sale across North Sydney, Pagewood, Mascot, and Zetland to meet buyer demand.
Triguboff also continues to speak publicly and often about Australia’s housing crisis, criticizing government red tape and arguing that approval delays and rising construction costs are holding back new supply.
Harry Triguboff Companies and Investments
Meriton Apartments Pty Ltd remains Triguboff’s primary business and the vehicle for nearly all of his wealth. The company’s net assets were reported at A$32.8 billion as of June 2025, based on the company’s own reported book value.
Beyond residential apartments, Meriton operates Meriton Suites, a hotel and serviced apartment division that has grown into one of the largest Australian-owned hotel operators.
Triguboff has also been a major sponsor of the Wests Tigers rugby league club since 1998.
Harry Triguboff Awards and Recognition
Triguboff was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on January 26, 1990, for service to building, construction, and philanthropy.
He was later appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia on June 7, 1999, for his service to the community as a philanthropist and to the residential construction industry.
He was the first person to win Australia’s Property Person of the Year award twice, first in 2003 and again in 2009.
Triguboff has also appeared on every Financial Review Rich List, or its predecessor the BRW Rich 200, since the ranking began in 1984, one of only seven Australians to do so.
Harry Triguboff Philanthropy
Triguboff funds the Harry Triguboff Foundation, which supports Jewish community causes and immigration-related programs.
Through the foundation, he financed a project at the Shorashim Center that helps immigrant applicants to Israel prove their Jewish heritage.
His late wife, Rhonda, was also active in philanthropy, supporting charities focused on children’s health, animal welfare, and nature conservation. The couple traveled to Israel together multiple times in support of Jewish community projects.
Harry Triguboff Wife
Harry Triguboff has been married twice. His first marriage, to a woman named Hana, ended in divorce and produced his two daughters, Orna and Sharon.
He married his second wife, Rhonda, in 1980, after meeting her while she worked as an accountant in Meriton’s Sydney office. Their marriage lasted 44 years, and Rhonda was remembered by the family as a devoted stepmother to Sharon and Orna.
Rhonda Triguboff died in September 2024 at her home in Sydney, following a terminal illness, at age 76. Harry Triguboff has not remarried since her death.
Harry Triguboff Children
Triguboff has two daughters from his first marriage, Orna and Sharon. Orna is his elder daughter and has worked as a meditation and yoga teacher, a path distinct from her father’s property career.
Sharon Triguboff, who goes by the surname Hendler, has two sons, Daniel and Ariel Hendler, who both work at Meriton.
Daniel Hendler has taken on an increasingly prominent executive role at the company and has been widely discussed as a likely figure in Meriton’s next generation of leadership.
Triguboff has structured his will so that Orna and Sharon will each inherit half of Meriton, while day-to-day management is expected to pass to trusted family members and executives, including his grandsons.
Harry Triguboff Net Worth
Harry Triguboff’s estimated net worth is $22.6 billion as of 2026. His fortune comes almost entirely from his ownership of Meriton, which he built from a single block of apartments in 1963 into Australia’s largest residential property developer.
Meriton’s own reported net assets stood at A$32.8 billion as of June 2025. Triguboff has consistently ranked among Australia’s two or three richest people for over a decade, and Forbes placed him at 110th on its 2026 global billionaires list.
Unlike many billionaires, Triguboff holds nearly all of his wealth in a single, wholly owned private company rather than in publicly traded shares.
He has said he has received buyout offers from Canadian and British pension funds, as well as Chinese investors, but has chosen to keep Meriton within his family.
The Bottom Line
Harry Triguboff built Meriton from a single block of eight apartments in Tempe in 1963 into Australia’s largest residential property developer, responsible for more than 80,000 apartments.
Born in Dalian, China, to Russian Jewish parents who fled antisemitism, he came to Australia as a teenager and later trained in textiles before finding his path in real estate.
Now in his nineties, Triguboff still works daily at Meriton’s Sydney office and continues to speak out on Australia’s housing policy, even as he plans for his daughters and grandsons to carry the company forward.
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