By Chris Nicholls

SYDNEY: Harvey Norman has purchased a property in Singapore to shore up its position due to the threat of huge rent rises from shopping centre owners.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Current.com.au, Harvey Norman co-founder and executive chairman Gerry Harvey said the property, cost them twice what he thought it was worth.

However, he said they had to buy it “in order to consolidate our position.”

“Because it’s in Singapore, and what we can do with it later on, I think we can actually make money out of it.”

“We’ve got one and a half billion (Dollars) in property, and as far as I’m concerned, the quicker we can double it, the better.”

Harvey said while he had no set timeline for this goal, he did not foresee it taking a long time.

“It’s the same old story – it takes you a long time to get to half a billion, then a long time to get to a billion, but it doesn’t take long to get to one point five. It won’t take us long to get to two.

“I’ve had a lot of criticism over the years. People said ‘Oh, you’re in retail, you shouldn’t be in property’, but whatever they’ve said has just been absolutely stupid.”