A tenant begged Anthony Albanese not to make him homeless after the Prime Minister issued an eviction order.
Jim Flanagan, 45, has lived in one of Albanese’s investment properties in the inner west Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill for four years, but has been given 90 days to pack up and leave.
The prime minister’s property portfolio had previously been estimated to be worth around $5 million, although he sold a two-bedroom unit in Canberra in 2022.
Albanese grew up in public housing in Sydney, but now owns a mortgage-free bungalow in Marrickville and the three-bedroom semi-detached house in Dulwich Hill.
The Prime Minister now lives primarily at The Lodge in Canberra, rent-free and mortgage-free.
Flanagan was reluctant to go public with his situation, but felt he had no choice.
“This will kill me, it’s a devastating blow right now,” he told Daily Telegraph.
Jim Flanagan (pictured) begged Anthony Albanese not to kick him off the street.
Mr Flanagan has been given 90 days to vacate the Dulwich Hill property (pictured)
A shocked Flanagan received the eviction notice for his real estate on May 8, informing him that Albanese “may be selling the house at some point.”
“Please note that the owner is demanding vacant possession of the property… 90 days after delivery of this letter,” the notice said.
He then asked for clarification if the owner wanted to vacate the property, which the agent confirmed.
The small business owner has a month-to-month lease and knows that the Prime Minister has the right to sell the house.
But Flanagan was prompted to try to stay after reading about the government’s $1.9 billion package to cut rental costs for vulnerable people announced in Tuesday’s Federal Budget.
“It just doesn’t sit well when (Mr Albanese) tries to be sympathetic to the majority of Australians who, like me, find the current climate extremely challenging,” Mr Flanagan said.
He said he voted for the Labor Party in the 2022 election and mainly supports the party’s policies, but is making it difficult as the bar he owns is in trouble.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon pictured at Parliament House in Canberra.
Albanese reduced Flanagan and his then-partner’s rent to $680 a week during the pandemic, and has not raised it since.
Flanagan added that the Prime Minister “has been a great landlord” and “very generous”.
But if he is evicted, the rent for a similar property in the same area, which is just steps from his bar, will likely be about $800 a week.
Flanagan’s former partner previously spoke about what it was like to have the Prime Minister as an owner.
In a 2022 TikTok video, he praised Albanese for “living the values he preaches” by cutting his rent by 25 percent at the start of the Covid pandemic and maintaining that reduced rate two years later.
Anthony Albanese also owns this house in Marrickville (pictured), which is also currently rented.
Albanese, who is estimated to earn about $115,000 a year from his investment properties, said Wednesday night that he was selling due to “changes in my personal life.”
Those changes are understood to be his impending marriage to Ms Haydon after the couple got engaged in February.
He bought the Dulwich Hill property for $1.175 million in 2015, and it is now estimated to be worth between $1.9 million and $2.2 million.
Albanese also rents his former home in Marrickville, which is also in Sydney’s inner west, for $1,350 a week.