The facts are hardly surprising, given few if any other explanations would explain our persistently high house prices!
And yet another reason to simply put the incumbent last on the ballot paper!
These cigar chomping/chardonnay sipping people stand up and profess to want to serve Joe public; and or, make a difference/improve the general lot of all Australians!
Yet the real goal seems self service, or feathering the personal nest!?
Pious hypocrisy, pales into insignificance besides these snake oil salesmen; in the face of 100,000 homeless Australians and rising.
These people are patent numskulls; and should learn to understand the privilege of paying a fair tax, instead of using things like negative gearing to avoid it?
And we are the only so called advanced nation, that has it!?
And then we wonder why we can't seem to get rid of this most pernicious form of welfare for the rich/tax evasion!
I would love to have the privilege of paying 10-15 million dollars tax every year!
Reason?
Well, it would mean my average annual income was around the same!
And I could look my fellow Australian in the eye; knowing, that my fair share of tax was contributing to better schools and hospitals etc/etc.
It would be easier, for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to pass through the gates of heaven!
Money should not be valued for its own sake, but merely as a useful tool, that in the right hands, can make a huge and positive difference in so many lives.
And then not as handouts or charity, albeit the rich could do much more of that or tithe 10%, but rather, with our investment choices!
Investment choices that ultimately improve the lot of every man!
Then there's technical innovation, science and medical advances and maybe a prototype warp drive, that finally puts the stars in reach of a hugely overpopulated planet.
And yes, we do need to take all the lessons learned here, and just not compound our mistakes on planet earth, by repeating them elsewhere!
Rhrosty.

I am wondering if members of the Reserve Bank of Australia have to declare their assets and personal finances, and what would their property assets be?

I am also wondering if is true that Joe Hockey lives in a $6 million dollar house, that was originally bought for $2.5 million in 2004.

This is an average increase in value of $360,000 each year, which is almost the same as his wage as Treasurer.

(And he also has a beachside house worth $1.5 million, as well as 3 other houses?)

"Yet the real goal seems self service, or feathering the personal nest!? "

Well, fancy that.

But only consider: to what extent are you contributing to the cause of the problem? While ever people persist in regarding and supporting the state as supposedly some kind of institution of social service, what do you expect? But isn't that what you do?

Interesting article. It would be interesting to compare these stats with the population as a whole. More owner-occupied and much more investment properties is my guess.

A couple of minor quibbles:
- Unless they are very highly geared, it’s unlikely these people would face “negative equity” even if house prices did drop.
- I suspect the loss of asset value among constituents would be more than enough to discourage politicians from measures to reduce house prices even if their own self-interest didn’t point then in that direction.
- They may be “landed”, but they aren’t “gentry” !

There is an article about one Politician who owns 50 properties.

There's nothing new about politicians feathering their own nests.