April 28, 2020 10:00am by David Farrar

A malicious headline

The headline at Stuff:

Sir John Key buys waterfront Sydney pad and lists it next day

99.9% of people reading that headline would conclude that John Key is a property speculator. That he purchased a property cheap off someone, and the very next day is trying to sell it at a huge profit.

The actual story is mundane:

New Zealand’s former prime minister Sir John Key and his wife Lady Bronagh​ became Sydney’s newest high-end home owners this past week when they took possession of an A$5.7 million (NZ$6.05 million) harbourside apartment in McMahons Point.

But the Auckland-based couple are not expected to take up residence in the 129-square-metre pad despite having already waited three years for it to be complete since buying it off the plan. …

Agent Tim Abbott said that at the time the couple bought the apartment Sir John had business interests in Australia, but in the years since the building has taken shape, those interests have moved to the United States, leaving their newly completed apartment redundant.

So in fact they brought it three years ago. And now there is no need to have a residence in Australia so they have sold it. And of course you can only sell something once you have settled the purchase, so in fact the story is much ado about nothing.