Just how far off is the Lodge for
Peter Costello? Well, the Treasurer obliquely referred to one
potentially large obstacle facing him when he appeared in last week’s
Fairfax uber-glossy (melbourne) magazine lifting the lid on his housing history.

A
feature of his cosy interview was the need to rationalise his real
estate portfolio when he jumped from lawyering to politics – out went
the holiday house: “I used to have a place down in Blairgowrie,”
lamented Costello. “I had to sell it when I went into politics to pay
the bills.”

John Howard used to be a legal man, too, although
not a high flyer like Costello. He’s come a long way, of course, from
his days as a Wollstonecraft solicitor, and his own digs for the past
decade have been without peer: Kirribilli on the harbour and the Lodge
when slumming it in Canberra.

Comfortable accommodation is high
on the priority list for anyone planning retirement. And no one who’s
lived in Kirribilli for ten years could bear to go back and become
Wollstonecraft man – but no doubt Howard has to stay in Sydney to get
the big buck board seats which will come his way on leaving parliament.

Which
means Howard’s got a three or four million dollar dilemma. No doubt 30
years on the political super gravy train builds an impressive nest egg,
and if he’s been squirreling his salary he will have a substantial
mortgage pool to dip into. Ministers, after all, don’t actually have to
pay for much.

But as Kim Beazley found out earlier this year,
Sydney prices are still stratospheric. There were plenty of chuckles in
May when the Telegraph reported that Beazley couldn’t afford a
Sydney home: “Mr Beazley said the experience of trying to find a
property had left him sympathetic towards Sydneysiders trying to enter
the property market,” the Tele reported. “I have a real
understanding of how difficult it is for people in Sydney in finding
affordable accommodation to rent or buy.” And this from an Opposition
leader on $197,524.

Howard’s hero Bob Menzies famously lived his
retirement in a house donated by supporters. Jeanette Howard is
unlikely to settle for an unadorned suburban retirement, and that’s
just another hurdle in Costello’s long march to the Lodge.