Wannon candidate Alex Dyson owns five investment properties

Alex Dyson, the independent candidate vying for Wannon, owns five investment properties while campaigning on housing affordability.

Alex Dyson, the independent candidate vying for the once-safe South West Victorian electorate of Wannon, owns five investment properties and a Melbourne business, while campaigning on housing affordability.

It is also unclear whether the radio presenter and small business owner has lived permanently in the electorate he has been vying for since 2019, or whether he has relocated ahead of this year’s federal election.

On his campaign website Mr Dyson says he grew up in Warrnambool and attended Warrnambool Primary and College, but he makes no mention of his recent living arrangements.

With housing affordability taking centre stage in this federal election campaign, The Weekly Times asked candidates seeking election across a handful of regional Victorian electorates about their property assets and primary place of residence; many did not respond. All incumbent politicians must declare their interests on a publicly available register.

Mr Dyson was asked where he lived, how long he had lived there and whether he owned any investment properties, but he did not respond directly to the questions.

However, he told a podcast last week he owned five investment properties and a comedy theatre in Melbourne.

The former ABC co-host of Triple J’s popular breakfast program said he bought his first property, a two-bedroom apartment in Warrnambool, in 2010, while working at the broadcaster and living in Sydney.

“I moved up to Sydney at the age of 21. I moved to Sydney and the property prices were out of control, this was 2010, and you’re like, ‘I don’t think I’ll afford a house here’, but then I’m thinking maybe I’ll move back to Warrnambool,” he told Punter’s Politics, in an episode aired last Tuesday.

“I looked back at Warrnambool and thought property prices are a bit more decent here. So I bought a two-bedroom unit in Warrnambool, in my home town, which is very nice … So I own five properties now.”

Mr Dyson said he was encouraged to continue buying investment properties because of favourable tax incentives for landlords.

“It’s funny, you go to the accountant and they say ‘all right, so you’re claiming this, and you’re claiming this, and you’re claiming this?’ And you go, ‘what are these perks they give people renting properties?’ And then you figure out buying houses you don't live in, like tax wise, is so different,” he told Punter’s Politics.

Mr Dyson said he was driving an Uber to help pay his mortgages, and that he looked forward to being the first politician to vote against their own interests (for property tax deductions).

In November 2023, he told listeners of his own podcast that he lived next door to well-known comedian Andy Lee in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond.

Mr Dyson owns a comedy theatre in Melbourne.

Details of Mr Dyson’s real estate portfolio follow heightened speculation about the transparency of the Liberals’ Kooyong candidate Amelia Hamer around her property holdings.

Mr Dyson told The Weekly Times he was living in Warrnambool “once again”.

“Like many people in regional Australia I moved to attend university and was fortunate to get a job on national radio. I have always been deeply connected to Warrnambool and South West Victoria … I’m very lucky to be living in Warrnambool again.”

Mr Dyson said housing was one of the “key issues” in the region.

“When I first ran in 2019, I had conversations with hundreds of people who were experiencing significant pressures from the cost of housing. Sadly, in 2025, this problem has only gotten much worse,” he said.

“If elected, I would fight to secure a National Housing Policy, which is desperately needed to co-ordinate government action. I would also work with independent for Indi, Helen Haines, to secure a $2bn Regional Housing Infrastructure Fund, which will help provide essential infrastructure for new homes in regional areas.”

Wannon MP Dan Tehan, who is seeking re-election for a sixth time, has lived in a property he owns in Hamilton since 2009, a year before he was first elected. He also owns a rental property in Canberra, he said.

The investments are also declared on Mr Tehan’s register of interests.

Alex Dyson drawing attention to the state of the electorate’s roads in 2022. Picture: Facebook

This is Mr Dyson’s third tilt at Wannon, following attempts in 2019 and 2022.

Each time he has whittled down Mr Tehan’s grip on the regional electorate, turning it from one of the Liberal Party’s safest seats to an electorate with a margin of just 3.8 per cent.