By Rob Harris From Herald Sun

Malcolm Turnbull already owns a home with better views than Kirribilli House could ever offer.

So it wasn’t a shock during his press conference the day after winning the top job, when he was asked whether he’d leave his $50 million Point Piper mansion in favour of the Prime Minister’s “cold, dark and cramped” official Sydney residence.

It’s even possible Mr Turnbull and wife Lucy will remain in their 1930s Mediterranean-style home, which faces the secluded Lady Martin’s Beach and Sydney’s world famous harbour.

Australia’s 29th Prime Minister, whose family is worth an estimated $180 million, is Parliament’s second richest man behind Clive Palmer.

He made his fortune as a former merchant banker and lawyer, then turned a $500,000 investment in internet provider OzEmail into $60 million when he sold up more than a decade ago.

The Turnbulls’ property portfolio alone is impressive — his 1940sq m Point Piper home in Wolseley Rd is ranked among the world’s top 10 most exclusive streets.

The average price-per-square-metre is about $61,000. The land alone is valued at $24.7 million

Among the Turnbulls’ neighbours are Westfield Group chairman Frank Lowy and Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond.

Mr Turnbull owns four office units in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay, worth about $2.5 million, plus a multi-million-dollar apartment at Canberra’s Kingston Foreshore.

The Turnbulls also own about 20 pastoral rural NSW properties in the Hunter Valley.

In 2012 his wife, Lucy, bought a $3.28 million investment apartment at Manhattan’s The Century — a 1931 Art Deco apartment building at Central Park West and 63rd St.

Ethel Merman, the American actor and singer, was a former resident while pop stars Paula Abdul and Cheryl Cole, Candy Spelling, the widow of late TV producer Aaron Spelling, U2’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr, Russian-born investor Len Blavatnik and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos all call it home.

What could be politically problematic for Mr Turnbull is his millions of dollars tied up in a global tax haven — especially as the Government attempts to force multinational companies to pay their fair share.

His parliamentary register of interest lists four funds Bowery Opportunity, CVC Global Credit Opportunities, Zebedee Growth & 3G Natural resources — domiciled on the Cayman Islands — where many global hedge funds base themselves to avoid paying capital gains tax.

The minimum possible investment in two of the funds is $US1 million.

The Coalition Government introduced legislation on Wednesday cracking down on multinational companies which aggressively minimise local tax obligations by shifting income to low tax countries.

The Federal Opposition tried to exploit Mr Turnbull’s investment history in Parliament this week, by asking Treasurer Joe Hockey if he’d consulted with the new Prime Minister over the laws which cover activities in known tax havens.

Mr Turnbull told the Herald Sun all of his investments were approved under the Ministerial Code of Conduct and to avoid conflicts of interest, almost all of his financial investments were in overseas managed funds.

“Thousands of managed funds with investors outside of the US are registered in the Cayman Islands with the result that the income of the fund is taxed in the hands of the investors in their own home jurisdictions,” Mr Turnbull said.

“So all of my income from my investments including funds registered in the Cayman Islands is taxed in Australia.”

A leading financial expert said tax havens like the Cayman Island allowed investors in hedge funds to pay tax once — their own home country — and it was an accepted practice.

But the same expert thought a prime minister should only invest through a blind trust.

Mr Turnbull has said investing in a blind trust would not allow the individual details of his holdings to be disclosed to the public.

Similar criticism was levelled at former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu while he was the Opposition Leader during the 2010 state election.

Mr Baillieu ended up placing his multimillion-dollar share portfolio in a blind trust, to shield him from Labor attacks.

The new Prime Minister, who sold his shares and switched his investments to managed funds and hedge funds when he entered parliament in 2004, severed ties with Independent Franchise Partners US Equity when it emerged it had links to tobacco giant Phillip Morris.

IMAGES:
An aerial view of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Point Piper harbor front home.
The Century apartment building in Manhattan.
Malcolm Turnbull says all his investments are approved under the Ministerial Code of Conduct.

For more on this story go to: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/the-investments-that-built-prime-minister-malcolm-turnbulls-wealth/story-fnpp4dj5-1227533740143