One of Australia's most experienced apartment developers believes a new NSW building-dispute framework could give developers greater confidence to commence major projects.
Meriton founder Harry Triguboff has backed the state's building-law overhaul, arguing that reducing prolonged and costly court proceedings could encourage more large apartment developments to move forward.
His comments follow the passage of NSW reforms covering building approvals, modern construction methods, certifier integrity and dispute resolution through Building Commission NSW.
The NSW Government has allocated $32.3 million in the 2026/27 Budget to implement the changes, including modernising the building approvals system, integrating it with the NSW Planning Portal and piloting artificial-intelligence tools for licence processing.
The government says the broader reforms have the potential to reduce some building costs by up to 20 per cent and shorten construction times by up to 50 per cent through greater use of modular and prefabricated construction.
Those figures are government projections, not guaranteed outcomes for every project.
For apartment developers, one of the most consequential changes may be less visually dramatic: a new framework intended to resolve building disputes without every disagreement becoming a long court battle.
Triguboff said the process could make builders less fearful of starting large projects and predicted that greater developer confidence would lead to more major developments.
He also argued that older cases remain unresolved and that disputes extending beyond eight years are not addressed by the new arrangements.
The position reflects an obvious developer interest, and it should not be mistaken for an argument against accountability.
Apartment owners must retain effective avenues to have legitimate defects investigated and rectified. Confidence in new-apartment markets depends on buyers believing that buildings are safe, developers remain responsible and serious defects will not be buried in a faster process.
The policy challenge is to create a system that distinguishes genuine building failures from disputes that become unnecessarily prolonged, expensive or adversarial.
That distinction matters well beyond developers and lawyers.
When a major apartment project does not proceed, the consequences move through the entire property industry. Project marketers lose future stock, off-the-plan sales teams lose campaigns, construction businesses lose work and housing targets become harder to reach.
When a defective building proceeds without adequate protection, the consequences are equally serious. Owners face financial and personal distress, confidence in off-the-plan purchasing deteriorates and the reputation of the wider apartment sector suffers.
The objective cannot simply be fewer disputes. It must be earlier, clearer and more effective resolution.
The NSW legislation also removes duplication between building and planning rules, introduces staged approvals and allows some minor variations to be handled without a new planning consent when they remain within the approval framework.
The government estimates that requiring one authoritative set of designs for an apartment building could save an average of $327,000 in design costs per block.
Certifier penalties for breaches of strengthened conflict-of-interest rules will rise from $33,000 to $1.1 million, an increase intended to reinforce integrity while other parts of the system are streamlined.
For project marketers, the reforms are unlikely to produce an immediate surge of launch-ready stock. Development decisions are also shaped by finance, presales, construction costs, taxes, buyer demand, land pricing and planning risk.
Triguboff himself has argued that local companies often lack the capital required to commence large projects and that foreign investment settings remain another barrier.
The significance of his endorsement is therefore not that one legislative change will solve NSW housing supply.
It is that a developer responsible for thousands of apartments sees legal uncertainty and prolonged dispute exposure as material factors in whether major projects proceed.
The next test will be practical. Building Commission NSW will need to show that the framework can resolve disputes earlier without weakening consumer protection or allowing genuine defects to escape scrutiny.
If it succeeds, the benefit will not only be fewer court files. It could be a development environment in which reputable builders, apartment buyers and the sales professionals connecting them have greater confidence in what happens after construction begins.
This article was independently written and edited by Real Estate Today. Legislative details and projected savings were drawn from the NSW Government. Harry Triguboff's comments were reported by The Australian and reproduced by Meriton. © Real Estate Today 2026, All Rights Reserved.
Real Estate Today is Australia's independent real estate publication for agents, project marketers, principals and property professionals.
This article was independently written and edited by Real Estate Today. © Real Estate Today 2026 – All Rights Reserved.
Real Estate Today is the most engaged & influential real estate industry publication throughout Australia and New Zealand.
