Peter Dutton has reportedly made $30million of property transactions over 35 years, making him one of richest-ever contenders for Prime Minister.
The Opposition Leader purchased his first home at 19, before going on to buy and sell 26 pieces of real estate, according to an analysis of property and corporate records, parliamentary registers and real estate data carried out by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The paper reports that Mr Dutton, 54, has turned a healthy profit from his various real estate investments, with property purchases totalling $12million and sales of $18.8million.
The properties include luxury city apartments, childcare centres, a shopping plaza, a beachfront mansion and a farm.
At his peak, the leader of the Coalition owned five properties at the same time across Queensland, in addition to a flat in the ACT.
However, in the last few years, Mr Dutton and his wife, Kirrily, off-loaded their massive property portfolio, netting almost $5million.
They now only own one property: a 68-hectare farm in Dayboro, Queensland, purchased for $2.1million in August 2020.
The paper further alleged Mr Dutton had been late to declare his property transactions with the parliamentary register on 15 separate occasions.
The Opposition Leader purchased his first home at 19, before going on to buy and sell 26 pieces of real estate in real estate transactions worth an estimated $3million
Mr Dutton, 54, has turned a healthy profit from his various real estate investments, with property purchases totalling $12million and sales of $18.8million (pictured: his former mansion on Millionaire’s Row on Palm Beach on the Gold Coast that sold for $6million in 2021)
MPs are required to declare any gifts, investments or property transactions within 30 days.
Mr Dutton rejected the idea that he had failed to make declarations on time, telling reporters on Wednesday morning that ‘somewhere paperwork hasn’t gone in on time but there’s nothing consequential in that’.
‘They’ve (Labor) trawled through every transaction of my life… and they’ve come up with the fact that we’ve bought and sold properties,’ Mr Dutton said.
‘My father and I started with nothing in a small building company and half the transactions that are on that list are blocks of land we bought where Dad built a house and we sold the house and land.
‘I never lived in the house. It was never rented out and it was a small business and if the Prime Minister is against aspiration and hard work and achievement, he should say so.
‘I’m proud of what we achieved. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. My parents worked hard.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was roundly criticised for his decision to purchase a $4.3million clifftop mansion in Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast last year.
But Employment Minister Murray Watt said Mr Albanese’s property portfolio paled in comparison to Mr Dutton’s.
The properties include luxury city centre apartments, childcare centres (pictured, above), a shopping plaza (below), a beachfront mansion and a farm
Brandishing a copy of the Herald’s story, Employment Minister Murray Watt (pictured) accused the Opposition Leader of wanting to cut Labor’s $10 billion Housing Australia fund
‘Peter Dutton and his colleagues had a fair bit to say about the Prime Minister buying one house last year,’ Mr Watt told reporters.
‘We’ll see what he’s got to say about the 26 homes that he’s bought and sold over the last couple of decades, some of which he hasn’t declared.
‘Now all politicians are required to disclose publicly, purchases and sales of houses along with any other assets that they buy and sell, but it seems from this story that Peter Dutton hasn’t complied with those regulations in all cases.’
Brandishing a copy of the Herald’s story, Mr Watt accused the Opposition Leader of wanting to cut Labor’s $10billion Housing Australia fund.
‘(The fund) is actually now building homes around Australia for average Australians, so it’s fine it seems for Peter Dutton to amass a large property portfolio for himself, but he wants to deny working Australians and essential workers in Australia the opportunity to have a home of their own,’ he added.
The paper reported that Mr Dutton has bought 10 properties by himself, 13 with his father, Bruce, and one with his wife, Kirrily.
Two others were with his first wife, Susan Britton, with one of those being a joint purchase with friends.
RHT – a company and associated trust named after the Duttons’ children, Rebecca, Harry and Tom – previously owned a shopping centre and several childcare centres.
In February 2021, Mr Dutton sold his holiday home in Millionaire’s Row on the Gold Coast for $6million, after it was previously passed in at auction for $4.35million.
Mr Dutton and his wife bought the Jefferson’s Lane home for $2.35million in 2014, and more than doubled their money in seven years, pocketing a $3.65million profit.
RHT – a company and associated trust named after the Duttons’ children, Rebecca, Harry and Tom – previously owned a shopping centre and several childcare centres (the Dutton family are pictured together)
However even the hefty price that they snapped it up for was something of a bargain. The previous owner had paid $2.5million for it 12 years earlier in 2002.
The Duttons also sold their family estate in Camp Mountain, north west of Brisbane, getting $1.8million for the six-bedroom, two hectare property in 2020.
The family had lived there since buying it in 2003 for $710,000, netting them a $1.09million profit.
He has also offloaded an investment property in the Tangalooma resort in Moreton Island and an apartment in Canberra.
But he has not always turned a profit on his property transactions.
The former policeman managed to lose $147,000 when he sold a luxury unit in Spring Hill in Brisbane’s CBD.
He bought the modern two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in the Art Series building The Johnson in 2016 as an investment property for $629,500.
But five years later, he sold the deluxe unit – which covers a generous 153 square metres – for $482,000 last May, after just nine days on the market.
However, against the sales of the rest of his extensive property empire, the loss is like a drop in the ocean.
The Duttons also sold their family estate in Camp Mountain, north west of Brisbane, getting $1.8million for the six-bedroom, two hectare property in 2020 (pictured)
But he has not always turned a profit on his property transactions. The former policeman managed to lose $147,000 when he sold a luxury unit in Spring Hill in Brisbane’s CBD (pictured)
Mr Dutton opened up on his views on the great Australian dream – home ownership – on an interview with Mark Bouris’s Straight Talk podcast.
‘I’ve always had an interest in property… I’ve renovated a few places, sold them. I’ve split a couple of 32-perch blocks, which was the thing to do years ago,’ Mr Dutton told Bouris.
‘That 809 square metres so in those days if you had a 20-metre frontage you could split it into two blocks, subdivide it.’
Mr Dutton said he thought it was a ‘tragedy’ that some young Australians had all but given up on home ownership.
‘The home is such an important anchor for a stable relationship for the raising of children,’ he said.
‘An asset that increases in value that you can bequeath to your children or it can set you up in retirement.’
He added: ‘For me, it’s been a tool of wealth creation and an opportunity for Kirrily and I and our children.. and I think my kids who are 22, 20 and 19, have that aspiration – they are saving like crazy to buy a house,’ he said.
‘I think we’ve instilled that in them that it’s an aspiration that you should strive for and there’s good that comes from it and if you sacrifice and you save and you go without then there’s a sort of longer term opportunity and upside.’