Anthony Albanese may be proud of his ‘Struggle Street’ heritage, but at the end of the month the only thing he’ll have trouble with is which bathroom to choose in his clifftop oceanfront mansion.
The Prime Minister has splashed out $4.3 million on his new beachside dream home in Copacabana, on the New South Wales Central Coast, ahead of his wedding to his future wife Jodie Haydon.
Albanese purchased the four-bedroom, three-bathroom mansion last month and, as expected, will move into the property at the end of October.
But while acquiring the Seachange property might have seemed like a good idea at the time, political strategists warned it sent the wrong message to voters and suggested it was out of touch.
Online listings boast that the ‘architecturally designed’ home enjoys ‘uninterrupted views of the ocean and Sydney skyline from all levels’ while remaining a short walk from the beach.
“A privileged place to enjoy the sun, watch whales or spectacular sunsets all year round,” the listings say.
The house, a short drive from Mr Albanese’s future in-laws, also features spacious open-plan living and dining spaces, a large ground-floor guest room, an additional north-facing entertaining terrace bathed by sunlight, a huge double room. Garage with internal access and turning space.
Although the prices are out of reach for most homebuyers, Albanese will appreciate the full impact of the country’s spiraling property prices, as the mansion sold for just $1.7 million in 2017.
Still, he has fared better than the previous owners, who bought the house for $4.65 in 2021 and had to shave $300,000 off that price to get rid of the property after it was on the market for almost a full year. .
It has been revealed that the Prime Minister is buying a house on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Last month, Albanese told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that he was looking forward to getting closer to his impending in-laws after settling in.
“I’m about to marry Jodie and start a new chapter in our lives,” Albanese told Fordham.
‘Jodie is a ‘coastal’ and spending time with her there is fantastic. “It will be nice to be closer to his parents and family one day.”
But RedBridge’s director of strategy and analytics, Kos Samaras, said the largesse of the overspending might not sit as well with struggling voters..
“If it was just a normal house in the suburbs…$4 million would probably, in Sydney terms, be in the middle of the range these days,” Mr Samaras said.
‘So, it’s also the location. If it had been a house he bought somewhere in the city, I don’t think we would be having this discussion, even if it were $4 million.
‘If it was a $4 million house in Manly or parts of Sydney, people would say: “Okay, it’s shit when it comes to the property market”; no one will have any conversation about this.
‘I am fundamentally of the opinion that it is due to its location. And look at the place, it is a very, very beautiful house, with beautiful views. “They all provided terrible optics.”
The house is described as having “uninterrupted views of the ocean and Sydney skyline”.
Samaras said the purchase only reinforced a “prejudice that exists in the minds of voters that politicians on all sides have no problems when it comes to housing.”
“As a result of this, they (politicians) don’t feel the anxiety that they (voters) feel right now about the price of rents and mortgages,” he said.
“Albanese’s problem now will be that when he tries to be empathetic, he will find it extremely difficult.
“If Labor plans to do something drastic to reverse the empathy deficit they suffer from, that will effectively be nullified.”
Samaras defended the timing of Albanese’s purchase, which he said was “out of control given his personal circumstances.”
“He found the house he really wanted to buy… the house may not have been on the market for a long time, so you could understand why he did it,” he said.
‘Equally, that is probably why other prime ministers have not entered the property market while in office, because it sends a strong negative signal to the electorate.
Albanese was criticized for the purchase amid a cost of living crisis.
Their new home features wood-paneled cathedral ceilings and open living and dining spaces.
‘That’s why the Coalition is relying on the comment that it’s his nursing home and he should retire. He’s actually pretty smart.
Richard Denniss, who heads left-wing think tank The Australia Institute, added that millions of young Australians are struggling to pay HECS while paying high rents.
“I think a lot of them will really have a hard time understanding how a government employee can afford a $4.3 million house,” he said.
“But the fact is, for those old enough and lucky enough to have owned a home for a few decades, rapidly rising house prices have generated a huge, tax-free financial windfall,” he stated.
‘While renters and first-home buyers may be experiencing a ‘housing affordability crisis’, millions of older Australians, including the Prime Minister, have benefited greatly from recent house price growth.
‘For them, the so-called real estate crisis is really a bonanza. But, for many, it can be more accurately described as a crisis of inequality.”
The 8,000-square-foot home offers “sunshine, whale watching or spectacular sunsets all year round.”
In Brisbane to make a housing announcement, Albanese again said his future wife was a “proud coastal woman” and that “when your relationship changes, your life changes.”
He acknowledged that he had “been fortunate” and had earned a good income as prime minister, but said he also understood through his mother “what it is to fight.”
Those comments did little to calm the controversy surrounding not only the purchase but also the timing of it, given that Labor is preparing for the next federal election in 2025.
The property sold in September for an undisclosed price, according to housing website Domain. Before that, the coastal house last changed hands in 2021.
The 8,000-square-foot home features wood-clad cathedral ceilings, open living and dining spaces, and “year-round sunshine, whale watching, or spectacular sunsets.”
The apparent purchase comes after Albanese scuttled a planned October 12 auction of his Dulwich Hill rental property, opting instead to list the house.
The Prime Minister sparked controversy when he announced earlier this year that he would evict long-term tenant Jim Flanagan from the property.
Mr Albanese’s new property is located in Copacabana on the Central Coast, where the Prime Minister’s fiancée is originally from.
It comes after the Prime Minister decided to sell a rental property in Dulwich Hill earlier this year.
Albanese defended the move, saying it was a consolidation of his portfolio ahead of his wedding and that he had rented the house at half the market rent since Covid.
Despite the controversy, the Prime Minister is far from the only politician (Labour, Liberal or minor parties) to own multiple properties, some for rent.
Of the 227 sitting MPs, at least 75 owned more than two homes, with Labour’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the Liberal Party’s Karen Andrews topping the list with seven each.
Fewer than one in three federal politicians reported owning a single home, the most notable being opposition leader Peter Dutton.
Others include Employment Minister Murray Watt, National’s Matt Canavan, Green’s Sarah Hanson-Young and independent Lidia Thorpe.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price of the Liberal National Party, Ralph Babet of the Australia Unleashed Party and Bob Katter are among a small group who do not own property.