Mr. Ross Kocass

Meriton spokesman Ross Kocass said the designers of the World Tower apartments in the city had considered dropping all numbers with four from the building plan.

"We're still going relatively well," said Ross Kocass , marketing manager at Meriton Apartments, one of the companies expected to be hit by the slowdown.

But Ross Kocass, marketing manager at Meriton Apartments, developers of Australia's tallest apartment block, Sydney's World Tower, says: "We are not foolhardy and we don't believe we will see the same levels of growth portfolio-wide we have seen for the past 10 years.However, the fundamental strength is still there."

While stage one of World Tower is 90% sold, he says, just 75% of stage two has been taken up.
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Meriton's Ross Kocass admits: "This kind of market provides enormous opportunities as inexperienced or over-committed developers come to grief, and large companies like ourselves find increasing opportunity.

Meriton spokesman Ross Kocass said it was "not true" copies of the masterplan had been withheld from residents.

The "rock is not an item of environmental heritage or conservation significance", and the NSW heritage office's requirements for the site were included in the master plan, he said.

"The proposed development replaces a site which contained obsolete industrial buildings dominating the foreshores of Abbotsford Bay with residential buildings set within extensive landscaped areas," he said.

A Meriton spokesman, Ross Kocass, said that while the caravan park had been "reasonably profitable" it was essentially a "land bank" for the giant property developer.

"This is a natural progression in terms of land use," Mr Kocass said."We believe its current use is both outdated and no longer financially viable."

He said the company was completing a similar process with another former caravan park at Parklea, bought in the mid-1990s, with "tremendous success".

Blacktown Council imposed conditions in that case and Meriton agreed to pay up to $220 towards relocation costs and expenses related to electricity reconnection for residents, Mr Kocass said.

A Meriton spokesman, Ross Kocass, said the company was not reacting to fears of oversupply.

"We continue to see strong levels of demand for both sales and leases," he said.

Mr Kocass said the move was solely to "increase the choice for our clients - no other reason".

The marketing manager for Meriton, Ross Kocass, said the company was expecting to sign up many international students before university goes back at the end of February.

Indonesia, Britain, South Korea and Singapore are the most common home countries of students signing up with Meriton.Many are far from the stereotype of the impoverished student."We've had a couple of applications that have come in with six months' rent paid in advance," Mr Kocass said.

A Meriton spokesman, Ross Kocass, confirmed the couple's electricity had been turned off.

"We've done everything we can to ensure this does not happen again," he said.