Donald Trump’s treasurer has lost millions on these houses

The man Trump has picked to lead the Treasury department has a mixed track record when it comes to property investment. 

Scott Bessent, a South Carolina-born hedge-fund manager and billionaire, is US president-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of the Treasury. 

In total, he has transacted over $US127 million ($AU198 million) worth of property since the 1990s, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

For a man with such a powerful position in the US economy, you would hope he had a spotless track record in property investment. 

But according to the Wall Street Journal, he has lost money on at least eight of his houses. 

Right now, an 1840s plantation house in South Carolina owned by Bessent is for sale. 

The house is named the John Ravenel House after a prominent 19th-century planter and slaveholder. 

Bessent bought the house for $US6.5 million in 2016, and it’s currently listed for $US22,250,000. 

If he gets the price he is asking, he will have made a substantial profit on the property – but not all of his past sales have been so good. 

DuBose Heyward House, South Carolina

The Treasury secretary nominee bought this Charleston house for $US3.7 million in 2006 and sold it a year later for $US3.6 million – making a $US100,000 loss. 

Prominent Southern author DuBose Heyward lived in the house from 1919 to 1924. 

Windrush, New York

This 1920s estate in New York State was bought by Bessent for $US11.3 million in 2006 and sold for just $US7.1 million in 2012. 

He made a $US4.2 million loss on this grand 24-acre estate. 

720 Park Avenue, New York

In 2017, Bessent bought a two-floor apartment in Manhattan’s 720 Park Avenue building for $US19.25 million. 

Four years later, he sold it for $US14.999 million in 2021 – a loss of about $US4.25 million.