Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann loses $82,000 on Hillman investment property in Perth’s south

The housing market is tricky at the best of times. You can arm yourself with all the best facts and figures and it can still catch you out. Australia’s longest-serving Finance Minister knows this all too well. WA Liberal senator Mathias Cormann has been Finance Minister under Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. During his 13 years in Parliament he has made major decisions that have changed the course of the country, such as helping to oust prime minister Turnbull, negotiate WA a better deal on GST and helping to engineer a $164 billion spending package to jolt the economy after coronavirus hit. He even reached the lofty heights of acting prime minister for a few days in 2018. But do you think he could turn a profit on a three-bedroom investment property in Hillman? No. He bought the Palamuna Court home in July 2006 for $332,000, and has just sold it for $250,000. That’s an $82,000 loss after 14 years, or $5850 a year. And that does not include the interest paid on the loan, presuming he had one. But property records with RP Data CoreLogic show the owner before him did manage to turn a profit. We can’t find any record of that buyer — let’s call her Susan — but we can confidently say that whoever she is, she did not run the country’s finances. Yet she made $284,500 profit on the property in five and a half years. She bought it for $47,500 in December 2000 and sold it for $332,000 in July 2006. As well as taking a bath on the price, Cormann also took a long time to sell the property, with the home spending 447 days on the market. It may be that the building grants finally rescued the home from continued oblivion. Advertising for the 1000sqm block highlighted the potential to knock down the home and build on two lots — and it was snapped up amid WA’s recent land-buying frenzy. But there is no need to feel sorry for the outgoing finance minister, who plans to retire this year. He more than doubled his money on a Menora property he sold for $950,000 in 2007, after buying it for $450,000 in 2003.