The NSW Strata and Property Services Commissioner — responsible for overseeing strata governance and assisting in the regulation of the state's property sector — has failed to publicly disclose more than 500,000 shares in a major real estate and strata services company.

John Minns was originally appointed by the state government in November 2021. 

At the time, he told the public, via an official government biography, that he had "sold his interest in Independent Property Group in mid-2021".

But a Four Corners investigation has confirmed Mr Minns's family trust has continued to hold a significant stake in the company, worth more than $750,000.

In a formal interview with the program, he has admitted he still owns shares in the company.

Asked whether his family trust "continues to own more than 500,000 shares" in the company, Mr Minns said: "That is correct."

The Minister for Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, has asked for an urgent review of the matter.

This year, Mr Minns has been overseeing an investigation into high profile strata management company, Netstrata, following ABC revelations the company had been charging exorbitant insurance fees and taking an untold sum in industry kickbacks.

In May 2021, Mr Minns sold $3.1m worth of Independent Property Group stock back to the company, but retained another 558,776 shares, worth around $780,000.

Mr Minns has told Four Corners that while this wasn't disclosed to the public, the NSW government was fully aware of his shareholding.

The company operates primarily in the ACT, but held a NSW real estate licence until June last year. 

Several of its employees continue to operate in NSW and hold NSW licences.

Independent Property Group's most recent financial statement, obtained by Four Corners, shows the company has earned more than $8 million from strata and facilities management work across 2022 and 2023.

Four Corners discovered that three weeks ago, after Mr Minns was first invited to give an interview to the program, Independent Property Group circulated a notice of an extraordinary general meeting which set out a company plan to buy back Mr Minns's remaining shares.

This buy-back proposal is scheduled to be voted on by the company's other shareholders next Wednesday. 

Mr Minns accepted it was possible he may continue to hold the interest if his fellow shareholders declined to buy him out.

"I'd be very surprised if I don't continue to hold them for longer than that."

Strata specialist solicitor, Stephen Goddard, said that in his opinion the failure to publicly disclose the shareholding was "a self-evident conflict".

"The Strata and Property Commissioner is charged with a public duty of growing good public policy in the public interest for those living in the strata space. It's of course a great disappointment to discover that same person has an interest, a commercial interest in the trading of apartments."

During his interview with Four Corners, Mr Minns initially said his published pledge — that he had sold his interest in the company in mid-2021 — was mirrored by a formal pecuniary declaration to the government.

But he denied he had misled the government.

"The agreement was that I no longer had an interest in the business beyond what hadn't been paid out [in 2021]. What I would have hoped [was] to have been further paid out much sooner than the three year period that we're dealing with now."

"I've made it very, very clear at all stages with the NSW government, and it was accepted by the secretary [of the department] at the time."

The secretary at the time was Emma Hogan.

It's not the first time that Mr Minns has hit the headlines. 

In July 2022, his role as Property Commissioner was terminated, eight months into a two-year contract, on the basis of a restructure of the department.

Three weeks later, Ms Hogan reinstated Mr Minns to his position with an annual remuneration package of $400,000.

Anoulack Chanthivong, the Minister for Fair Trading, said: "All NSW public sector employees are required by law to abide by the NSW Code of Ethics and Conduct for government sector employees which sets out the rules for conflict-of-interest disclosures."

"Under the Government Sector Employment Act, the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service is the employer of the Property Services and Strata Commissioner," he said.

"I have asked the Secretary to review this matter urgently."

In October last year, Mr Minns's remit was expanded to also take responsibility for overseeing the strata industry.

In March, the ABC's 7.30 program found Netstrata had been accepting rebates from suppliers and using its own firm to charge excessive brokerage fees.

While a typical brokerage fee is about 20 per cent of an insurance policy's base premium, Netstrata's insurance arm was charging in excess of 60 per cent, without disclosing that fee to owners.

Since then, the ABC has seen evidence that Netstrata was, in some cases, charging even more — as much as 110 per cent of the cost of the premium.

The company's managing director, Stephen Brell, was forced to stand aside from his position as the state president of the industry peak body, the Strata Community Association (SCA), after he admitted the conduct of his firm, identified by the ABC, "made me feel really awkward".

"I'm going to go back and look at our practices and make sure we tidy them up," Mr Brell told the program at the time.

NSW Fair Trading subsequently launched an investigation into the firm. Without adequate resources to conduct the inquiry itself, it brought in accounting firm McGrathNicol to conduct the review and required Netstrata itself to pay for it. 

The McGrathNicol report has yet to be completed.

In June, the NSW government moved ahead of the findings of the report and pledged to "stamp out bad behaviour" with a suite of law reforms.

The changes proposed are to increase maximum penalties that can be imposed on strata agents, including for the failure to disclose "information about commissions", and strengthen the requirements to disclose conflicts of interest.

Since publishing its first reports about Netstrata, the ABC's investigative unit has received about 2,000 submissions from unit holders around the country. The vast majority of these complaints appear well-credentialed.

The extent of the community's unhappiness with the strata industry casts a pall over the government's plans to address the housing crisis by radically increasing the number of new apartments that it will approve.

"We want to change the perception that strata managing agents easily, and readily, take advantage of owners, by significantly increasing the consequences for those who do the wrong thing," Mr Chanthivong said when he announced the reforms.

"The new laws are designed to take immediate action to help restore confidence in living and investing in strata schemes, ensuring more people consider apartment living as a housing option."