Last month, The ABC posted a ripping article on the high degree of investment property ownership by Australia’s federal politicians, which is likely acting as a strong disincentive to them making fundamental reform to fix Australia’s housing woes:
The 226 individuals own 524 properties between them and about half of them own investment properties.
That means many of our politicians have a very personal interest in any changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
You can search your local member’s property interests here…
Ninety-six per cent of parliamentarians own a property. Only 10 out of our 224 elected officials aren’t in the game.
Compare that to the rest of Australia, where home ownership is expected to dip below 50 per cent sometime this year…
Almost half of our parliamentarians have an investment property. Among the general population, the rate of investment property ownership is about 10 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia…
Today, Alex Tarrant at Interest.co.nz has published a similar article on the even higher degree of property ownership by New Zealand’s politicians, whereby just 118 MPs own 350 properties – roughly three each (or 2.5 each if Maori lands are excluded):
New Zealand’s parliamentarians have interests in 350 real properties, according to Parliament’s latest Register of Pecuniary Interests. This represents a shade under three properties per MP.
The headline figure is boosted by various MPs’ interests in Maori land blocks…
The register covered 118 MPs’ interests as at 31 January 2017…
By party, National’s 58 MPs recorded interests in 201 real properties. Labour’s 30 MPs 101, the Greens’ 14 MPs 20 properties, NZF’s 12 MPs 25 properties, the Maori Party’s two MPs one property (Flavell), two for Peter Dunne (UF) and none for ACT’s David Seymour.
A staggering 76 MPs declared an interest in two or more properties. Meanwhile, 51 declared an interest in three or more…
Advertisement
National’s 3.5 properties per MP might help to explain why it has been so opposed to demand-side policies to help cool the housing market, as well as why it is so strongly in favour of maintaining a mass immigration program. Money talks.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
