Federal election 2019: How many properties do our leaders own?

If Labor wins the upcoming May federal election, would-be treasurer Chris Bowen plans to curtail tax breaks for investors in property by ending negative gearing entitlements on properties bought in the future, excepting newly built homes.

Labor says the bold housing policy is hoped to level the playing field between first-home buyers and investors in a country that has the most generous tax concessions for property investment in the world. It will also grandfather the tax concessions for anyone who already owns an investment property.

But at a time when Sydney and Melbourne have recorded double-digit house price falls in the past 12 months, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg argues the housing policy would smash real estate values.

Then there’s the personal gain or loss to be made by our federal MPs, most of whom have some skin in the property game.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison’s property interests are limited to the family home held in his and his wife Jenny’s name. The couple bought the three-bedroom house with a swimming pool on the Port Hacking and Dolans Bay border in 2009 for $920,000, with a Commonwealth Bank mortgage.

It was only two years after Morrison was elected the local member for Cook, in Sydney’s south, and coincided with the sale of the couple’s former home in Bronte.

Morrison grew up in Bronte before he moved to the Shire, and bought his first home, a company-title apartment in a 1960s-era block on Pacific Street in 1995.

Later that same year the Morrisons bought a two-bedroom Californian bungalow on Bronte’s Lugar Brae Avenue for $330,000, and sold it in 2009 for $985,000 when they bought in the Shire.

There was also a Blue Mountains cottage in Blackheath that Jenny owned in 2003 for $325,000, and offloaded in 2009 for $347,000.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten owns a house in Moonee Ponds, seven kilometres north-west of Melbourne’s CBD, public records show.

He bought the home in 2009 for $842,000 and is mortgaged to ANZ Bank.

The property is in Mr Shorten’s name only, and his wife Chloe is not listed on the title.

At the time of its last sale, the home was listed as featuring three bedrooms and two bathrooms with spa and en suite.

He previously owned another Moonee Ponds property with then-wife Debbie Beale, which was sold for $1.745 million in late 2008, records show.

That sale came after Mr Shorten and Ms Beale separated.

The now Labor leader was elected to Federal Parliament for the seat of Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s inner north-west in 2007 when the party took power under then-leader Kevin Rudd.

“Every Australian looking to buy a home has the right to compete on a level playing field,” Mr Shorten said in a recent speech. “I simply don’t believe it’s fair that young Australians trying to buy their first home and build a future and to bring up their family have to bid against affluent property investors subsidised by the taxes that we all pay.”

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg

Josh Frydenberg owns a house in Hawthorn, in Melbourne’s inner east, jointly with his wife Amie.

The couple bought the property in late 2011 for $1.76 million, records show.

It has a mortgage to Secure Funding Pty Ltd, part of non-bank lender Liberty.

The purchase came after Mr Frydenberg was elected to Parliament in 2010 in the seat of Kooyong.

When it was last on the market, the home was advertised as a brick residence with three bedrooms and a large study or possible fourth bedroom, courtyard and back garden.

Mr Frydenberg was a director of Deutsche Bank before entering Parliament.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen

Chris Bowen’s property portfolio is comparably elementary. He and his wife Rebecca Mifsud, an industrial relations advisor and director of the Whitlam Institute, bought their matrimonial home in his McMahon electorate the same year they were married in 2003 for $470,000.

The Smithfield property was rebuilt the following year when Bowen was first elected to Federal Parliament.

The couple added a 730-square-metre block of land in 2016 at Bawley Point, about 100 metres from the beach, for which they paid $295,000. The DA-approved, two-storey holiday house built at a cost of $550,000 was completed last year.

Bowen’s only other property interest was his first home, a then-new three-bedroom townhouse in Fairfield West he bought in 2000 for $201,000 and sold five years later for $320,000.

This article has been updated since publication.