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The hidden property empire of Australia’s politicians

Recent mandatory asset disclosures by politicians suggest a widening wealth divide between our elected representatives and those they represent. Those disclosures show that our politicians aggressively invest in the property asset class and much more so than the average Australian.

With a raging debate concerning the unaffordability of housing, disclosures of property investments by sitting members suggest that conflicts of interest may exist in the Houses of the 48th Parliament. Importantly, those conflicts of interest are inferred but not openly disclosed, either prior to or during parliamentary debates concerning housing policy.

A comparison of the ratios of investment in property – politician to average household – makes for some alarming observations.

Let us start with the Australian household sector – the taxpayers and the voters.

ABS data reveals there are 10.7 million households. There are 27.2 million Australians and thus the average household has about 2.5 people in residence. This ratio includes the 2.9 million households where people are living alone.

In 2023, there were 2.2 million property investors representing 19% of all ‘individual taxpayers’ that the ATO noted as having an interest in property. The majority of this cohort – about 1.5 million – had an interest in just one investment property. 450,000 had two properties and about 200,000 had three or more properties (representing less than 2% of individual taxpayers).

In passing it is interesting to note that about 10 million individual taxpayers (who were not in business) lodge tax returns, whilst there are about 15 million people employed. A third of workers do not lodge a tax return. However, property investors invariably lodge tax returns as they claim a range of deductions against appropriately disclosed rental income.

Australia’s 2021 census disclosed that 3.3 million households rented, about 31% of households. This includes renters from the government sector (about 277,000 renters).

What are the comparative numbers for our politicians?

The following chart, reported in the Australian Financial Review, covers the real estate assets of the 226 members in the Commonwealth Parliament (in the Houses of Representatives and the Senate).

In reviewing the asset and investment registers of politicians the following are my observations.

First, there are ‘apparently’ 12 politicians who declare that they do not own a residence. That is 5% of the political cohort, therefore 95% of politicians reside in a house that they own, with or without a mortgage. It is not immediately clear as to whether the 5% of renters may have an investment property – directly or indirectly.

The chart above indicates that:

  • 18 members have no property investment (8%) – if they rent then this compares to the 31% of Australian households that rent.
  • 72 members have one property (32%) – just their residence.
  • 65 members also have one investment property (29%).
  • 37 members have two investment properties (17%).
  • 23 members have three investment properties (10%).
  • 8 members have four or more investment properties (3%)

Thus, most politicians, some 60%, own one or more investment properties. The AFR produced the following tables to highlight our Parliament’s significant investment property owners.

Readers should note that different disclosure rules apply to Senators (not required to include related parties) to those that relate to Representatives.

In any case, given that our politicians are compelled to disclose the assets of their household, the following comparisons (politicians to the voters) are deduced:

  • 60% of politician’s households have an investment property compared to only 20% of the total for Australian households; and
  • 30% of politicians have an interest in more than one investment property compared to just 3.5% of Australian households.

The differences are stark - Politicians have multiples of investment property assets compared to average Australians.

Conflicts of interest are stark

It is remarkable that our politicians, as a cohort or subsection of society, have such a significant investment slant to investment property. Are there other factors at play?

It is well understood, and it is a strategic investment strategy, that property investment normally requires leverage. Multiple property investments absolutely require leverage to access negative gearing taxation benefits. Politicians access property investment loans at a greater rate than the broader population. Why?

Is it a reflection of unfair influence? Does it suggest that a politician’s income generating capacity, to support loans, is better or more certain than average households? Do politicians have job certainty?

In Question Time, is there so much conflict across the chambers that it is to no party’s benefit to highlight them?

So much for the workings of democracy!

This raises the issue of conflict of interest - between those who govern, debate and then determine the laws that relate to property investment - with those they represent.

The determination of negative gearing tax rules relating to property investment, and the oversight of leverage provided by the regulated financial institutions, requires a balanced policy debate. Can that occur in a Parliament that is weighted towards people who actively use property as an investment activity when most of the population either do not or cannot?

The broad asset disclosure declarations of politicians should not be accepted as the basis of dealing with conflicts of interest. In business, good corporate governance requires a conflicted beneficiary to make both a full disclosure and to absent themselves from a vote.

However, the ability of politicians to generate wealth should not be curtailed by public service. Remuneration and incentives should be met by more sensible salary and entitlements – so long as they are transparent and based on the generation of a measurable and better standard of living for the population they represent.

 

John Abernethy is Founder and Chairman of Clime Investment Management Limited, a sponsor of Firstlinks. The information contained in this article is of a general nature only. The author has not taken into account the goals, objectives, or personal circumstances of any person (and is current as at the date of publishing).

For more articles and papers from Clime, click here.

 

24 Comments
Alan
September 22, 2025

I thought it was illegal to vote on anything that a politician had some amount of control in, since all politicians vote to keep negative gearing of houses active - SHOULDN'T ALL POLITICIANS HAVE ZERO HOUSES TO RENT?
So everyone is right to say this is a conflict of interest. NOBODY can out bid a person with negatively geared houses - result house prices go up which supports more negative gearing. Politicians always say negative gearing does not do anything to affect housing prices??? If you had 3 and only 3 rented houses in the family, I think you would be well off!
I seem to remember there was some talk of politicians giving themselves pay rises 'didn't look good', so they linked their pay rises to those of judges and then any pay rise was not as transparent.
I could be wrong, but all politicians seem to have self-interest as their first thought.

Roewen Wishart
September 21, 2025

I think it's a long bow to title this article "The Hidden Property Empire...". I see no evidence in the article that there is anything "hidden", rather there's a high degree of disclosure, as there should be.

I do think some of the information here prompts some discussion about the merit of "blind trust" arrangements, at least for Ministers. For them, there's the perception (hopefully, not the reality) of conflict of interest arising from early access to market-affecting information. However for residential housing, the sale/purchase process is sufficiently slow that real advantage from early access seems pretty unlikely.

Ray N
September 21, 2025

The property is disclosed but the conflicts of interest aren't.

How can MPs with multiple investment properties get a vote on housing policy?

John Abernethy
September 21, 2025

Thanks Roewen,

One point I was highlighting and an issue I think is worth discussing, is the conflict of interest in setting specific tax laws concerning property investment.

A counter argument to the perception of conflicts is income tax law - all politicians are affected; or dividend franking - affecting share ownership, which benefits all super investors and obviously politicians.

However, residential property investment is a discrete asset class and importantly the majority of Australians don’t ( and financially cannot) invest in residential property.

Whilst we should encourage residential building, that is not the primary focus of negative gearing laws, for it also applies to geared purchases/ ownership of existing the property that generates rental income.


Martin
September 21, 2025

What I find interesting is that the greatest number of politicians with multiple properties comes from the Labor party!

This is from last year, before the ALP picked up more seats.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-16/how-many-properties-do-australian-federal-politicians-own/104476596

Allan Abrahams
September 21, 2025

I suspect that a lot of these properties will be held either in Family Trusts or SMSF's.
Which means that the politicians will never get rid of Family Trusts or increase the current level of tax because there can never be a more motivating force than "self-interest"

Lyn
September 21, 2025

John Abernethy, in 5th Paragraph did you mean "200,000 with more than three investment properties" not "one investment property".

John Abernethy
September 21, 2025

Hi Lynn
Good pick up with typo.
About 200,000 with three or more investment properties.

James Gruber
September 21, 2025

Hi Lyn and John, that's been corrected in the text.

OJ
September 20, 2025

To the author,
Of course, clever and wealthy people already know this and skew their investment in real estate accordingly.
Do the disclosure obligations of federal politicians require disclosure of property held in Family Trusts of which they are beneficiaries ?
Your final sentence is naive; what you ask is at best subjective and certainly impossible to measure.

John Abernethy
September 21, 2025

Hi OJ

Not sure as to why you believe that a better standard of living is hard to measure.

In any case it would be good for the whole Parliament - seeking a wage increase - to report their performance ( independent review of the State of the Nation) to the people each 5 years ( say ) on the following KPIs justifying a wage increase or bonus:

1. Management of cost of living movements;
2. Average wages;
3. Real wages;
4. Poverty;
5. Healthcare;
6. Education standards;
7. Budget outcomes and national debt

I am sure we could come up with other key criteria that is weighted appropriately.

But of course it would require the politicians to agree to be paid on performance rather than a annual CPI type adjustment. And it would set a good example.

OJ
September 22, 2025

John,
Thanks for your considerd reply. The controversial step re your proposed "KPI"s would be how do you weight them.
And there's nothing "hidden " about real estate ownership of property by politicians - eg Prime Minister Albo $4m+ purchase last year, Senator Wong similar purchase in Adelaide.
Although some readers will recall a Federal Labour politician from Victoria "forgetting" to declare several real estate interests, perhaps 10 years ago.
Per the late Charlie Munger "all my investing life I have been aware of the power of the vested interest, and I've always underestimated it ".

James Gruber
September 23, 2025

OJ,

The title was mine not John's so I'll take the blame on that one. I think it could have been better titled.

James

Stephen
September 19, 2025

Many politicians have a property in their electorate, which is their principal private residence and a property in Canberra, probably classified in most lists as an investment property.

However, if the property in Canberra is used as their residence when parliament is sitting it is not really what would normally be thought of as an investment property. They do after all have to reside somewhere when they are in Canberra.

It would be interesting to see the numbers composed of three lists - principal private residences, Canberra properties used when parliament is sitting and pure investment properties.

Countryman
September 19, 2025

There should be a requirement that when there is any debate concerning the laws that relate to property investment, then politicians who either directly or indirectly (e.g. spouse or SMSF) own more than one property, make both a full disclosure and absent themselves from a vote.

john
September 19, 2025

After a quick scan of this I saw the senate was all female and house reps all male. Am I reading something into this that I shouldn't ??

OldbutSane
September 19, 2025

This is no surprise as politicians are generally in higher income cohorts before being elected and most in those cohorts own investment roperties. It is also much more difficult for politicians to own any shares (especially listed companies) in their own names as they create too many perceived conflicts of interest.

The housing (and almost any other) problem Australia is no different to those in any country in the western world. I'm currently in Europe and articles in the press here about housing, migration, lack of skilled workers, etc are almost indistinguishable from those I've read in Australia.

Mark
September 18, 2025

Would be great to see how many politicians invest in productive assets outside their super in this country - i.e. businesses (shares)? Assuming very little.

Ian Frost
September 22, 2025

I understand that politicians are very nervous to invest in public companies and businesses because it leaves them open to accusation of conflict of interest/special treatment/vested interest when voting on government policy. We the public have basically forced them out of productive investment.

Aussie HIFIRE
September 18, 2025

The lack of disclosure for our elected officials is absolutely ridiculous. All that seems to be required is to disclose what you own in your own or joint names, and even within that no disclosure of the amount that you own. No requirement to disclose what you own in your super fund or investment company, which means that any politician with half a brain can easily hide what they actually own.

John
September 18, 2025

Australia's migration minister owns six properties and would be benefitting from skyrocketing rents. An interesting conflict given net migration under the Albanese government has been at twice the levels of previous governments since 2006 and more than four times the level before that.

BeenthereB4
September 18, 2025

Do the disclosures include property owned in self managed superfunds

D K
September 18, 2025

Property tax but NO polititions have the guts

Geoff D
September 18, 2025

Exactly! How can we ever expect the pollies to do what is best for the country when there is such personal conflict of interest? Perhaps another issue is potential insider knowledge resulting from discussions in the cabinet room?

 

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