Adapted from Sunday Mail article
by Greg Stolz and Jeremy Pierce
Sunday September 21, 2025
Catholic Anglican Lutheran Uniting Baptist Hillsong Citipointe Hebrew Islam Mormon JW
Note, the report uses words like "raking", "snapping up", but no mention of "expenses". Tricky
Psalm 50:10
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The Catholic Church is easily the state’s richest, with the Brisbane archdiocese alone raking in more than $1.6bn in 2024-25, according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
The diocese is listed as owning 538 properties, 40 of them purchased for more than $1m each. They include a Brisbane CBD commercial site bought for $51m in 2011, neighbouring St Stephens Cathedral. It also owns the heritage listed Stock Exchange Hotel which the church snapped up for $29.5m in 2019, and which has been earmarked for a 38-storey office tower redevelopment by JGL Properties.
The church is also listed as owning a specialist medical centre at Woolloongabba, bought for $86.42m in March this year. It has commercial and residential properties across Brisbane, with homes in some of the city’s most expensive suburbs – including one in upmarket Paddington bought for just $8000 in 1970 and now estimated to be worth almost $2.5m. The church also owns more than 440 properties in Toowoomba and North Queensland.
Its Centacare community care arm generated more than $148m in revenue in 2024.
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The latest ACNC report reveals the Anglican Church’s Brisbane diocese generated more than $163.5m in revenue through its Anglicare division.
Records show the church owns 433 properties across the southeast, including an Ascot mansion bought for $2.6m in 2006 and now estimated to be worth up to $6.27m.
The Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane splashed out $12.5m last November on a prime Southport development site neighbouring its elite private girls’ school St Hilda’s.
In April last year, the church spent $15.2m to snap up a former Church of Christ-run retirement home, neighbouring equally prestigious Anglican boys’ school TSS, to convert into housing. In 2023, the St Andrews Anglican School bought the shuttered Peregenian Springs Rec Centre for $5.5m, with plans to create a dedicated sports precinct. Queensland Anglican schools, including the likes of Churchie in Brisbane, are listed as “large” charities by the ACNC.
Lutheran Church
The earliest Lutheran Church still standing is at Bethania, built by German immigrants in 1872. Their Zion Hill Mission had started April - June 1838 in Nundah.
The church’s Queensland district owns 219 properties across the state, 16 of them purchased for more than $1m.
Its property portfolio includes an aged care facility at Gympie, which the church bought for $36.7m in 2021.
It also owns a six-bedroom Tallebudgera Valley mansion in the Gold Coast hinterland, purchased for $1.92m in April last year and now estimated to be worth up to $2.6m. The church also owns a block of units at Nundah in Brisbane which it bought for $3.3m in 2014. As with other churches, the Lutherans are not averse to shrewd property plays – reaping a record $20.1m in 2023 for a Moreton Bay housing site they bought for just $138,000 three decades ago. The church’s Queensland district is listed as a large charity by the ACNC, with revenue of $3.2m in 2024-25.
Its early childhood division earned $2.74m last financial year, according to the charities register.
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The Uniting Church is listed as owning 660 properties in Queensland, 22 of which were purchased for more than $1m each. They include the $18.66m it paid in 1999 for part of the Buderim Private Hospital site, as well as multimillion-dollar commercial buildings at Chermside and Annerley.
It also owns a 6.4ha site at Wurtulla, on the Sunshine Coast, bought for $14.5m in 2006 and on which it is planning a retirement village/aged care facility.
In 2016, the church paid $70.5m for the Fraser Shores retirement village at Urraween – one of more than 30 retirement living communities operated by its BlueCare division across Queensland. BlueCare generated more than $589m in revenue, according to the latest ACNC report. The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q), which owns its Queensland properties, had revenue of $93.7m, with total assets of just over $397m.
Baptist Church
The first Baptist Church was opened on Wharf Street in 1859. With a congregation of over 400, it was replaced in 1890 by the City Tabernacle.
The Baptist Union of Queensland generated $270m in revenue last year, with $185m earned by its Carinity community care division.
The church is listed as owning 238 properties in Queensland, including a commercial site at Wooloongabba which it bought for $10.45m in 2012. It also owns multimillion dollar commercial buildings in the Brisbane CBD, Gaythorne and Upper Coomera, a $7.3m site at Kepnock in Bundaberg which houses a Carinity retirement village and an 88.1ha farm at Hidden Valley near Yeppoon, bought for $3.55m in 2016.
Hillsong Church
It started in 1974 in a rented building as an outreach of Glad Tidings Tabernacle Assembly of God in Fortitude Valley (now known as Hope Centre).
Despite its worldwide wealth and celebrity followers including the likes of Justin Bieber and the Kardashians, the controversial Hillsong Church is a relatively small player in Queensland.
According to property records Hillsong owns just 10 properties in the Sunshine State, including a row of homes and flats at Mt Gravatt where it also has a mega-church, known as the Hillsong Brisbane Central Campus.
In June this year, Hillsong sold an Upper Coomera property to the Australian Karting Association for $3.35m. The church banked a $2.4m profit on the sale, having purchased the property in 2015 for just $928,521. NSW-based Hillsong Church Australia’s latest publicly-available report reveals it had $76.9m in revenue in 2021, with total assets of $72.8m.
Citipointe Church
Citipointe is part of the International Network of Churches, formerly known as the Christian Outreach Centre, which is listed as owning 57 properties across the state stretching as far as Charleville and Innisfail.
They include two commercial properties on Enterprise St at Cleveland which the church bought for a combined $5.19m in May this year and a 41.1ha farm at Woolmer near Toowoomba, bought for $3.55m in 2021.
The Carindale-based Christian Outreach Centre earned revenue of more than $72m in 2024, with a net surplus of $10.5m (up from $7.6m in 2023) and total assets of $321m. Its offshoots include the Red Frogs chaplaincy, which services events including Gold Coast Schoolies, and which earned $5.1m last year. The Pentecostal network operates seven churches in the southeast, as well as the Citipointe Christian College at Carindale which was embroiled in controversy last year after asking parents to sign a new contract stating that homosexuality was “sinful”.
Hebrew Congregation
The Gold Coast Hebrew Congregation appears to be the wealthiest when it comes to Jewish churches in Queensland, with revenue of $661,672 in 2023 and expenditure of only $209,660. In contrast, the Brisbane Hebrew Congregation received just over $169,000 in revenue but outlaid $190,747 on expenses. Both congregations own no properties apart from their synagogues in the Brisbane CBD and Surfers Paradise, according to CoreLogic data.
The Gold Coast is home to more than 1700 Jews, according to the latest Census, and has long been a popular destination for Jewish tourists and migrants from Melbourne and Sydney. Wealthy Jews including the late developer Eddie Kornhauser settled on the Coast.
Brisbane Islamic CENTRE
Brisbane’s Islamic community is building a $22m mega-mosque and retirement village on a site it has owned at Underwood since 2008.
Construction of the huge project began in 2021 but was paused last year after more than $8m was poured into it, amid planning changes and a funding shortfall.
The Islamic Centre is listed as a medium-sized charity, with revenue of $673,441 in 2023-24.
The other major Muslim entity in Queensland is the Islamic College of Brisbane Ltd, which had revenue of $32.8m last year. The Islamic Society of Gold Coast, which operates at the Arundel mosque, earned more than $296,000 in 2023-24 but spent more than $442,000.
Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
The NSW-based Australian arm of the church had revenue of $59.2m in 2024, almost 99.3 per cent of which came from donors, with expenses of $49.4m and assets totalling $31.1m. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is listed as owning 10 properties in Queensland, including a house at Pimpama on the Gold Coast which was bought for $6.62m in 2021.
Another entity, The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, owns 12 properties including a 2.8ha site at Augustine Heights, Ipswich, which it bought from Springfield Land Corporation for $5.17m in 2012.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Brisbane Corporation of Jehovah’s Witnesses Inc owns 94 properties, from the Gold Coast’s Currumbin Waters to Cunnamulla and Halifax near Ingham. Its holdings include a house at Bracken Ridge, bought for just $40,000 in the late 1980s but now estimated to be worth up to $1.24m.
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