Former premier Campbell Newman in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

FORGET everything he said about selling off assets, former premier Campbell Newman seems to have had a change of heart, on a personal level that is.

Since he’s popped his head back up with the announcement of the state election for November 25 – propelling assets sales briefly back into the spotlight – we decided to see if Mr Newman has been on a selling bender or the accumulation track.

It turns out he’s become a big believer in building wealth through property accumulation and has spent recent years taking on massive multimillion-dollar properties, mostly in the commercial space.

The property Newman co-owns in Mackay is leased back to UGL.

Among his biggest registered deals was last year’s July purchase of a $9.7m 3.09ha property in Mackay that he went 50-50 on with business partner Dominic Condon. Mr Condon is a former director of state-owned Stanwell Corp and co-founder of commercial real estate firm Chase Commercial.

The massive Paget property also came with a solid tenant in place – the Australian Stock Exchange-listed UGL – on a ten year lease worth a whopping $868,599 a year in rent by which time the pair would have made just about all their money back.

Mr Condon was also one third partner in investment vehicle Arcana Capital with Mr Newman and his wife Lisa – who make up 16.5 per cent each, and businessmen Peter Eccleston made up the remaining third.

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Dominic Condon who is a one third partner with the Newmans and Peter Eccleston in Arcana Capital. Picture: Glenn Hunt

He has interests in three other multimillion-dollar commercial properties including a $15.6m Redland Bay complex that was bought in August this year where the estimated net income was $1.248m a year.

The others he has interests in were a $6.2m light industrial facility in South Gladstone purchased in January; and a group of shops in Bongaree that changed hands in October last year for $7.3m.

The Bongaree site was marketed with an estimated annual net income of $550,532 off the retail centre and $191,239 off a Mitre 10 in the complex.

The holiday home registered to Mr Newman and his sister in New South Wales. Picture: CoreLogic

He and wife Lisa still own a $417,000 two bedroom unit in the heritage Rothbury Hotel complex in the Brisbane CBD, and Mr Newman also had a half share in a three-bedroom holiday property New South Wales with his sister Kate. His wife Lisa has holdings in her own right, with two Brisbane titles listed in her name with siblings.

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