High-rise Harry Triguboff has topped the BRW Rich List, amassing a personal fortune of more than $10 billion from an apartment building empire that has literally left its mark across the skylines of Sydney and the Gold Coast.
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Mr Triguboff's ascension marks the end of the domination of miners of the list over the past decade, reflecting the winding down of the mining boom but also a rise in property valuations and strong demand for more stock driven by Asian investors.
At 83, Mr Triguboff is still to be seen on building sites around the east coast wearing his trade mark hard hat bearing his initials HOT, Harry Oscar Triguboff.
Born in Dalian, in north-east China in 1933, he is the son of Russian Jews who fled to China after the rise of Lenin.
His father founded a successful textiles business and his childhood was one of some privilege: a Russian nurse, a Chinese cook, and at 14, the decision by his parents to send him to Australia, where he attended the exclusive Scots College in Sydney, according to a 2014 profile.
His early business ventures included stints as a taxi driver and a milk run. But it was with his first set of apartments in the inner Sydney suburb of Tempe not far from Sydney Airport in 1963 - eight flats in a red-brick building - that he made his start in the industry that would define him.
After Tempe, he built a block in Meriton Street, Gladesville, which gave his company its name, then another and another.
He founded Meriton in 1963 and still owns the company that now boasts annual revenue of more than $1 billion, making it the biggest builder of residential apartments in Australia and having built more than 70,000 apartments over the past five decades.
Meriton's success has not come without criticism, with public planners critical of Meriton's construction ambitions and impact on cityscapes. Mr Triguboff is an unabashed fan of significantly increasing the population of Australian cities. Amongst his better known buildings is World Tower on George Street in Sydney's CBD.
Mr Triguboff has appeared in each of the 33 editions of the BRW Rich List since it began.
He is well known for his love of cars and over the years has been more than happy to flaunt his four wheelers, showing off at times with twin Bentleys, an Arnage and GTC convertible number-plated "Hot One" and "Hot Two".
The billionaire has been married twice, has two daughters from his first marriage and lives with his second wife Rhonda in Sydney.
He was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1999 for services to philanthropy and the residential construction industry.
He's a significant contributor to the Sydney Yeshiva College, and the Jewish National Fund.
In 2011 he founded the Triguboff Institute in Jerusalem, to help people research Jewish heritage.
