How Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi is set make investment property portfolio megabucks – after slamming Australia’s housing system for ‘screwing over’ millions

GreenLeft vice-chair Mehreen Faruqi is expected to rake in a windfall of $850,000 from the upcoming sale of real estate from her multi-million dollar portfolio of homes.

The New South Wales senator, who has openly criticised her party’s government policy of supporting “rich property investors”, appears to be a pretty savvy investor herself.

Property records show Ms Faruqi, who has criticised Australia’s unaffordability of housing, is selling a property in Port Macquarie, on the New South Wales north coast, for a guide price of $1 million to $1,100,000.

She and her husband bought the four-bedroom home in 2001 for $250,000. It went on the market in May, creating the potential for a hefty six-figure profit.

Ms Faruqi also earns $750 a week from a three-bedroom house she rents in Beaconsfield, in central Sydney. In 1996, she paid just $193,000 for the property.

And she owns a 5,500-square-foot plot of land in Lahore, a city in northern Pakistan, plus a four-bedroom home in a Sydney suburb where the average home is worth $2.5 million. That home was bought in 2007 for an undisclosed sum.

Ms Faruqi’s property portfolio has come under fire from conservative lobby group Advance Australia, who have called her “just another politician who rails against the affordable housing crisis but does nothing about it and still makes a fortune”.

Ms Faruqi recently described Australia’s housing system as one where ‘millions are thrown away while banks and developers make big money from the misery of others’.

Senator Faruqi criticized the Albanian government’s solution to the housing crisis in an Instagram post last week (photo)

She has previously criticised government support for “wealthy property investors”, in line with the Greens’ policy of abolishing negative gearing and capital gains tax cuts.

Ms Faruqi hadn’t always planned to sell her Port Macquarie retreat for a hefty profit. She originally submitted a development proposal to Port Macquarie Hastings Council in May 2023 to split her investment property into three and build two-storey terraced homes on the land.

The ambitious plan involved cutting down 20 trees in prime koala habitat. An ecological report submitted to the council said the plans would “result in the loss of the majority of the site vegetation” near Lighthouse Beach.

The senator has previously been critical of previous state governments that allowed native forests to be cut down and koala habitats to be cleared.

She received criticism for the development proposal and apparently scrapped the plan altogether a year later, after which she put the property on the market.

Mehreen Faruqi sells her Port Macquarie investment property for $1,100,000 (pictured)

She bought the property in 2001 for $250,000 and if she sold it for the asking price, she would have another $850,000

Sandra Bourke, spokeswoman for conservative lobby group Advance, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I can’t remember the last time I heard the Greens talk about the environment. That’s because they’re just not who they used to be.

‘It used to be about protecting forests, now it’s about themselves.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Faruqi for comment.

According to the Greens’ website, ‘a safe and affordable home is the key to a dignified life. In a prosperous country like Australia, no one should be forced to go without.’

‘But renters and mortgage holders are struggling. Big banks and wealthy property investors are making billions in profits, while millions of Australians are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.’

The Greens’ proposal to improve housing affordability would cap rent at 25 percent of tenants’ income and end capital gains tax rebates and negative gearing.

The New South Wales senator was criticised on Sunday after she appeared on ABC’s Insiders programme, where she refused to say whether she believes the Islamic terrorist organisation Hamas should be dismantled.

Ms Faruqi also owns an investment property in Beaconsfield, in Sydney’s city-west (pictured)

She rents the property for $750 a week, which is about 40 percent of the average salary in NSW (property pictured)

She was asked five times whether she believed the extremist group responsible for the deadly attack on Israeli festival-goers on October 7 should be abolished as a condition for Palestinian statehood.

“Hamas has nothing to do with the recognition of the Palestinian state,” she told host David Speers.

“Recognition of the Palestinian state is about the ability of Palestinians to decide for themselves.”

When questioned further on the matter, the senator said, “I can’t keep repeating it, [Hamas] has nothing to do with the Palestinian state.’

‘Palestinians should decide for themselves where they want to go with their own region, and not have Western countries intervene.’

Speers noted that Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation in Australia and told the senator: ‘Surely you can say whether you want them to go or not?’

She replied, “It’s not up to me to say who goes and who doesn’t.”

Ms Faruqi said she could not answer the question because it was based on a “hypothetical situation” if the Palestinians were to gain a state.