Meriton – 2014 In Review
23 December 2014
Meriton Group looks back on a profitable year as 2014 draws to a close.
It was a record year for the apartment developer, with the company’s annual turnover rising more than 50 per cent to AU$2 billion, bringing it to 11th place in IBISWorld’s 2014 Top 500 Companies, up from 29th spot the previous year.
The company’s net assets leapt from AU$6.1 billion in 2013 to AU$7.4 billion, a 21 per cent increase. An external valuation by Grant Samuels suggested that the company was in fact worth an estimated AU$10-12 billion when recurring income was taken into account.
The HIA-COLOR BOND steel Housing 100 named Meriton as Australia’s largest residential home builder, up more than 5000 housing starts, from 2573 in FY2013-14 to 7929. Based on this figure, new homes by Meriton accounted for around 10 per cent of all multi-unit dwellings commenced in Australia, and 29.5 per cent of all multi-unit dwellings commenced in New South Wales. Meriton projects equated to approximately 0.05 per cent of Australia’s GDP.
The company reported a 33 per cent increase in visits to its sales website, www.meriton.com.au. Enquiry levels on Meriton’s top five projects more than doubled (the most popular searches in 2013 on meriton.com.au were Parramatta, Ryde, Chiswick, Lewisham and Brisbane; in 2014, they were Parramatta, Mascot, Ryde, Zetland and Brisbane CBD).
Meriton introduced new childcare centres across almost all new builds, meeting the challenge of a chronic childcare shortage in Sydney and the Gold Coast. Currently, there are 17 new childcare centres in the pipeline, representing more than 1000 new childcare places.
Meriton began construction on nearly 8000 apartments; completed close to 3000; and has a further 15000 in its development pipeline, including five new Meriton Serviced Apartment properties in Chatswood, North Sydney, Parramatta, Mascot and Southport on the Gold Coast.
The company is set to build new apartments for sale in Dee Why, Rosebery, Lewisham, Pagewood, Sydney Olympic Park, Lane Cove, Chatswood, Parramatta, Zetland and Waterloo.