Developer Tim Gurner speaks out about smashed avo and beating the unit oversupply

Three months on from worldwide controversy brought on by comments he made on 60 Minutes, now infamous developer Tim Gurner says he doesn’t regret claiming millennials can’t afford houses because they buy “smashed avocado for 19 bucks and four coffees at $4 each”.

In town for the launch of the first two towers of his Fortitude Valley apartment blocks, FV Flatiron, Mr Gurner said given the chance, he wouldn’t take back the smashed avocado comments.

“I don’t regret it because it’s a big issue that we need to talk about, but it’s a bigger issue than avocados and coffee,” he said.

The 34-year-old Melbourne-based developer, a BRW Young Rich Lister, felt his message was over-simplified by the way 60 Minutes cut his grab and that his core message of encouraging financial responsibility among young people was lost in the furore.

“What I was saying at the time was you can’t go on a European holiday, lease an Audi or a BMW, spend a fortune each week on alcohol, drinks, bars, coffee and avocado and they cut that last section and used that,” he said.

The line attracted international headlines and plenty of unwanted attention. “We had paparazzi outside of the office, it was crazy,” Mr Gurner said. “We had about 1000 media requests in a week.”

However, he doesn’t place the blame of a lack of housing affordability squarely on millennials. Mr Gurner said Baby Boomers were holding onto an immense amount of property value, and needed to be encouraged to hand it down to the next generations.

“I think the government should be encouraging them to do it… [but] it’s hard for the government to know what to do in this climate.”

Since the controversy died down Mr Gurner has returned his focus to his developments, such as Brisbane’s Flatiron building. Rental inspections started on Wednesday and he said his staff were overwhelmed by inquiry.

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It’s surprising given Gurner is launching in an oversupplied unit market but he said high-end properties in inner Brisbane hadn’t suffered the same fate.

He said his business hadn’t experienced the effects of oversupply.

“I don’t spend much time looking outside of our market and what we’re doing in particular. We’re trying to market outside of what others are doing and we’re always trying to have a point of difference,” Mr Gurner said. “I’ve got no interest in being the stock standard.”

FV Flatiron’s point of difference was resort-style living in the city. The apartments are high-quality and residents have the option to make use of private spa rooms, a cinema, dining rooms, a communal pool and in-house apartment cleaning.

“We’re doing that to make sure if the market does get harder, we’ll always be leading the market. Cream does rise to the top.

“Secondary stock will find it harder if vacancy [rates] do increase.”

Buyers in the Flatiron had seen up 16 per cent price growth in the past four years.

“We’ve seen one bedrooms that sold for $460,000 back in 2013 reselling for $535,000,” he said. “We’ve got two bedrooms that sold for $595,000 sell for $715,000.”