Andrew Hrsto is the Founder and Owner of ALAND, a leading property and construction company based in Sydney. For over two decades ALAND has created high-quality yet affordable residential apartment developments, mostly in the fast-growing parts of Western Sydney.
The company has masterplanned new communities on greenfield sites on the city’s western perimeter, including its highly popular Schofield Gardens development and embarked on an exciting new project (Archibald by ALAND) on the NSW Central Coast that combines residential apartments, hospitality offerings and hotel accommodation.
Over recent years ALAND has acquired an enviable reputation for creating affordable housing of extremely high quality in one of the world’s most expensive cities – it is a reputation that Andrew has pledged to defend.
Andrew Hrsto was born in Fairfield in 1969. Both of his parents had emigrated from Europe – his father from Croatia and his mother from Macedonia – and met in Sydney. Andrew is the first-born and has a younger brother called Peter.
From his parents he learned the importance of hard work. Andrew’s father was a crane operator on the Sydney waterfront, but also dabbled in property and construction, often working on the weekends. His mother worked on the production line in an aluminum factory and also ran the family home.
As the eldest son, Andrew was expected to do his bit in the family business and spent many weekends and school holidays working with his father.
“Of course, I had no choice but to help out on the building sites,” he says. “You could say that building and property runs in my blood.”
Educated at Sacred Heart Primary School in Cabramatta and at Patrician Brothers College in Fairfield from Year 5 to Year 12. Andrew says his main passion at the time was playing footy with his friends, but he also excelled academically.
Despite his good HSC results, Andrew was not interested in higher education but was itching to get out in the real world and make his mark. At the time his great passion was buying and selling motor cars, so he naturally went to work for a local panel beating company.
“They couldn’t keep me stimulated enough at school,” he says. “I was too preoccupied playing sport and all I wanted to do was to build race cars, especially street machines. I was into all cars at the time.”
Andrew’s talent for business was evident even as a schoolboy. When he applied for a job at the local supermarket, he was fast tracked away from packing the shelves and given his own department to run instead.
“My first job was running the fruit and veg department at the Woolworths in Moorebank – that was when I was still at school.”
As the son of migrants, life wasn’t always easy for Andrew and he struggled with the English language, When Andrew was four his mother asked a neighbour to help Andrew learn English so he could be ready for school. This family was devoted to the Parramatta football club, and from then on Andrew became a fluent English speaker and a passionate Eels supporter.
Through Andrew’s childhood he played soccer and basketball, but his primary sport was playing tennis which today he still loves.
Andrew’s early experiences working alongside his father on building sites and witnessing his uncle’s later successes in property instilled in him a deep love and appreciation for the property industry. His ambition was to create a company that combined both development and construction, so that he could control a project at every stage. Indeed, Andrew has always balanced practical building skills with a deep understanding of the property industry. It is that combination sets him apart, alongide his core business values of honesty and integrity.