Labor’s Andrew Charlton a landlord without a tenant in Sydney’s leafy east

Parramatta federal Labor MP Andrew Charlton at North Parramatta, in Sydney’s west.

Here’s a champagne problem your average renter may find difficult to relate to.

Labor’s replacement treasurer Andrew Charlton (kidding, Jim) has found himself bereft of a tenant in one of the many luxury homes that he and barrister wife Phoebe Arcus own in their property portfolio.

The going rate is $2250 per week for their empty $5m-plus terrace in Woollahra; that’s while the power couple and their three children camp out in a sub-penthouse apartment in Charlton’s western Sydney electorate of Parramatta.

It can’t be so easy then for the Charltons to empathise with how diabolically unaffordable the Sydney (and broader) rental market has become when they are managing a mortgage-free portfolio of Harbour City real ­estate worth about $40m.

The Charltons’ eastern suburbs terrace has four bedrooms. Jam in at least a dozen students and they’re essentially offering affordable housing.

The Rhodes scholar with a PhD in economics and former adviser to then prime minister Kevin Rudd initially only bought into Parramatta in March 2022 after Charlton had been parachuted into the once safe Labor western suburbs seat by Anthony Albanese.

The couple’s first buy was a $2m red brick home in North Parramatta that they said they planned to renovate. After Charlton won the May 2022 election, the couple quickly abandoned loose plans they had to renovate the home – all too hard – and instead bought the $2m luxury apartment they now call home.

You have to wonder what a loss for the star candidate would have meant for the family – we’d put money on Charlton and Arcus still living in their other home, a $20m-plus mansion in Bellevue Hill, which has been undergoing $620,000 worth of renovations.

There’s the wealthy family’s recently purchased $12m pile in Palm Beach too, also held, of course, without a mortgage.

None of which screams westie.

Devil in Zoo Retail

Private equiteer Rob Koczkar has plenty of expertise with social enterprise, but we don’t think it’s what he had in mind when his Adamantem Capital last year forked out hundreds of millions for Zoo Retail, whose brands include the Janine Allis-founded Boost.

Alas, costs associated with the fund’s purchase of 70 per cent of the retail foods business from Bain Capital has meant a whopping loss in the early months since the takeover.

Koczkar, who also founded the peak body for social enterprise in Australia, Social Ventures Australia, has in recent weeks joined the board of Retail Zoo’s parent company, Safari Holdco, which Allis chairs. He has taken the board seat of Adamantem managing director Imran Choudhry, who is believed to be transitioning out of the private equity outfit.

Rob Koczkar. Picture: Hollie Adams

The group, whose brands also include Betty’s Burgers, Salsas Fresh Mex and Cibo Espresso, made a loss of $14.3m in the first three months of Adamantem’s ownership, which the company told Margin Call was a consequence of one-off costs associated with the transaction.

Accounts for the quarter to June 30 show the fund helped pay for its buyout of Bain’s majority stake from cash held by Safari, but directors remained confident when the numbers were signed off at the end of January that “the company anticipates being able to meet its debts as they fall due”. The numbers were prepared on a going concern basis.

At the time of the transaction last year, reports mooted a valuation on the Zoo Retail enterprise in the order of $350m. Its three-member board is rounded out by another Adamantem MD, Georgina Varley.

But on Thursday a company spokesman was adamant all was well.

“The annual report lodged does not reflect the strong underlying performance of Retail Zoo in FY23,” he said.

“It accounts for only the three-month period following the completion of the acquisition and is distorted by one-off costs.

“FY23 was a record year for Retail Zoo, with growth across sales, revenue and EBITDA.”

Adamantem was also contacted for comment.