The problem for Rattenbury is not simply that he owns a property which is set to gain from the transformation the government is bringing to Northbourne Avenue in a series of major property sales and policy and planning decisions, many still to come. But it's also that he has negatively geared the apartment – and another in the city where Andrew Barr was photographed in February attending the topping-out ceremony with developer Barry Morris – despite the Greens' avowed opposition to negative gearing. And it's the appearance of a Green, the party of social equity and parity, with enough money to burn that he can throw a lazy million (presumably; he hasn't said what the places are worth) at two investment properties in one year. At a time when housing affordability is, in many views, at a crisis point in Canberra and is a major political issue.

Which is not to say Rattenbury shouldn't buy an investment property but that he should think twice about it before buying it in the Northbourne corridor and at this time as crucial decisions are being made. Being a politician simply involves necessary limits on what you should and shouldn't do.

But Rattenbury has led a lonely political life in the past four years as the only Green in the ACT parliament. He has Greens on his staff but otherwise his colleagues, the people with whom he spends his working days, are Labor. And while his closeness to Labor makes political sense to an extent – a Liberal government is never going to welcome a Green into cabinet so Labor is the only route to power – it might also exacerbate a dulling of his political antenna.

In vote after vote he has supported the Labor agenda. He has occasionally forced a change in approach - $50 notes in poker machines and the Telopea Park land swap are two well-known instances - but he has also learned to set aside what his party might have preferred or might have done were it on the crossbench; perhaps even to justify and defend things he might rather not.

And you wonder whether this combination of isolation and capture, and his immersion among the city's political and business elite, has a part to play in the failure to see that some investments might be unwise.

Rattenbury's investments were the big story of the first week of the campaign, but there were two issues of more political significance. One, the announcement of Richard Farmer's candidates, with former Goulburn mayor Geoff Kettle leading a ticket of five in Ginninderra. Farmer has five candidates in Belconnen so when voters do as instructed and number one to five, and about 70 per cent do this, their votes won't leak to major parties and elect a Labor or Liberal candidate instead.

Farmer has targeted Ginninderra, the Belconnen seat, because that's where he thinks the final seat is most winnable, partly because his pro-clubs message resonates there, and partly because the electorate has shown itself willing to elect conservative independents, at least in the case of another farmer acolyte Dave Rugendyke in 1998. It's a long shot to think Kettle can win a seat, but Farmer's thinking on Ginninderra, that Labor is vulnerable there, is what has political significance. It's not just in Farmer's mind; some in Labor think the same.

Which makes it both fascinating and perplexing that Meegan Fitzharris is the only Labor candidate getting big air time with Barr, including in a string of joint announcements and an appearance in his ad. Fitzharris is standing in Yerrabi, itself a crucial seat for Labor, but Yvette Berry in Ginninderra needs all the help she can get to shore up the vote.

Fitzharris is a former Barr chief of staff and if it wasn't for the factional impossibility of her becoming his deputy, you would think he was positioning her for the role. But the way Labor politics works, if the right faction has the leadership, as it does in Barr, the left gets the deputy role. Which almost certainly makes Berry the deputy leader in a re-elected Labor government. It's odd, and no doubt creating unhelpful internal ructions, that she is not being treated that way by Barr.

It is perhaps no more than an aside, but one of the interesting aspects of news of Rattenbury's investment properties is the spotlight it throws on everyone else's investments. Trawl through the declarations of interests, which must be made after each election and updated as things change, and you might be struck by how little anyone owns.

Andrew Barr, 43, a cabinet minister for 10 years, living in Dickson with no children and a salaried partner, appears to own almost nothing. He has the home, held jointly with his partner, and they have a mortgage. That, apparently, is it. His office confirmed this week the register is up to date: "The chief minister and his partner do not have any investments or interests in any properties or shares or other investments beyond their home in Dickson. They continue to have a mortgage." Presumably Barr has a healthy savings account.

Most of his Labor colleagues are in a similar asset-poor position. Simon Corbell, after almost 20 years in the ACT Parliament, has a family home, mortgaged. Joy Burch and Berry also own only their homes, in Berry's case mortgaged. It is the same with Mick Gentleman, although he has also declared a vehicle collection. Fitzharris, though, has a Northbourne Avenue apartment, and Chris Bourke and Jayson Hinder own more: Bourke has a family trust, and commercial property in University Avenue, as well as a company, presumably from his dentistry business; Hinder lists an investment in the Adelaide Arcade, ownership of his law firm, licensed to others, and shares in Wesfarmers, IAG, Coco-Cola Amatil and Molonglo Financial Services.

You'll find more investment properties in the hands of the Liberals - not leader Jeremy Hanson, who has a mortgaged home in Holder and a defence pension, nor Val Jeffrey, who has his home and the Tharwa store. But Vicki Dunne has a property in Wollongong, Nicole Lawder recently sold a holiday house on the South Coast, and Andrew Wall appears to have recently sold an investment property in Fadden. Giulia Jones has two properties in Brisbane and recently sold one in Rivett. Deputy Alistair Coe has two units in Jindabyne. Make of that what you will.

Kirsten Lawson is the Canberra Times' ACT political reporter.