Nearly 40% of MPs and their families own 3 or more properties

Eighty-six federal parliamentarians or 38% of the Australian Parliament have declared they and their families own three or more properties, Open Politics’ latest analysis of the interests’ registers reveals. 

Half this group – one in five politicians – have four or more properties. Two thirds of parliament have at least two properties.  

517 properties in total have been disclosed to the registers, including primary residences, investment and rental properties, second residences in Canberra, holiday homes, beach houses, farms, business premises, and commercial real estate.

As hefty as that number is, the actual number of properties owned is higher as the interests of senators’ families are hidden from public view and Queensland MP Bob Katter has not declared his wife Susie’s four properties.

Labor politicians and their families collectively own at least 251 properties or 48.2% of all disclosed real estate. Labor also has the most properties in proportional terms with an average of 2.4 properties per representative.

Former minister Brendan O’Connor and his partner have seven properties between them, a nose in front of the ambitious Minister for Everything Tony Burke, who has six properties with his wife Skye Laris.

But it's not all about the numbers. Location is king in real estate. The crown for the most valuable property portfolio in goes to Parramatta Labor MP Andrew Charlton and his wife Phoebe Arcus, who have five houses worth around $42m. The Charlton's most recent purchase was a $12m Palm Beach pile, La Palma, which is about as far as you can get from his Western Sydney electorate without leaving Sydney.  

Western Sydney MP Andrew Charlton's Bellevue Hill house, which he bought for $16.1m in 2020.

Parliament’s biggest property owner is Liberal shadow minister Nola Marino, who has declared eight rural properties with her husband Carmelo. Her Coalition colleague and former home affairs minister Karen Andrews co-owns seven houses across three states with her husband Chris. She was always destined for home affairs.

Independent Allegra Spender’s property portfolio rivals that of Andrew Charlton’s after she inherited her late mother Carla Zampatti’s circa $25m mansion in Woollahra last year, bring her total real estate worth to around $40m.  

Allegra Spender's new house in Edgecliff Road Woollhara

The mega mansion and grounds are big enough to hold one of Spender's housing affordability gabfests, though to be fair she has shown electoral courage by being open to the need to reform tax concessions like negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts. That can't be popular with the Eastern Suburbs set. If only she showed similar fortitude on Gaza, but we're getting off topic.

The Greens have lower ownership levels than the major parties, however a few in their ranks are climbing the property ladder. NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi owns four properties with her husband Omar, while Tasmanian senator Nick McKim has four properties with his partner Cassy O'Connor.

NSW senator David Shoebridge has no properties in his name, but his wife Patricia Tsang has three, one of which is their multi-million dollar residence deep in the Greens' heartland of Woollahra. Bizarrely, Shoebridge’s name was on the property up until 2007 and he’s paying the mortgage on all three properties. Only the Greens.

Secret landlords?

Thirty-seven pollies have declared rental income on a total of 42 properties, though we suspect there are many more landlords in parliament as our analysis shows there are 195 investment properties on the registers. Sure, not every investment property ends up being rented out, but are we really to believe only 22% are? Yeah, nah.

The lord of landlords is LNP MP Andrew Willcox and his wife Raylene, who owned five rental properties up until November 2023. They now lease three after selling properties in Brisbane and Townsville.

It’s a fair bet that many landlord politicians would be able to reduce their income tax through negative gearing as many have mortgages over the properties. And, thanks to former prime minister John Howard’s reforms in 2000,  when they sell they get a 50% discount on the capital gains tax (CGT). Little Winston really does have his finger on so many bad decisions (gun laws and GST excepted).

Second residences in Canberra

Fifty-nine politicians - 25% of parliament - have second residences in Canberra and the surrounding region.

As many of our readers would know, politicians not based in Canberra are entitled to a tax free travel allowance of $310 for each overnight stay to cover accommodation, meals and other expenses, regardless of whether they own a residence in the capital.  

The typical stay during sitting weeks is four nights, Sunday through Thursday, so those with a residence would be entitled to $1,240 a week or around $14,000 a year based on the 2024 sitting schedule.

An allowance of this size would ease the pain of any mortgage repayments on the properties. Our analysis shows 34 parliamentarians have declared mortgages on their Canberra properties, however the true number could be higher as some have not declared which properties their mortgages are for.

Homeless tribe

Twenty politicians have not declared any property in their names (see pages 22-23 of second table), though we shouldn’t feel too sorry for at least seven of them as they have spouses or partners with properties which they are probably entitled to a share of if they break up. And a further eight pollies could be in the same camp as they are senators who don’t need to publicly disclose their families’ property holdings.

This leaves just five who have declared that neither they nor their immediate family own any real estate, including Greens firebrand and housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather, who does a very good job getting up the Prime Minister’s goat, his Greens colleague Stephen Bates, Liberal James Stevens, and Labor’s Matt Burnell and Josh Burns.

In time these young turks may buy a house, or two, but let's hope they don't go down the path of many of their property-investing colleagues, who are too conflicted by generous tax concessions to back reforms to make housing more affordable.

This article updates our previous housing analysis in September 2022, No housing crisis for politicians. The tables in our latest analysis will automatically update when parliamentarians make changes to their real estate interests.