What housing crisis? Why brewing blue over Anthony Albanese’s private money splash is making voters see red

Anthony Albanese may be proud of his ‘Struggle Street’ heritage, but by the end of the month the only thing he’ll be wrestling with is choosing the bathroom in his oceanside clifftop mansion.

The Prime Minister has spent $4.3 million on his new beachfront dream home in Copacabana on the NSW central coast, ahead of his wedding to future wife Jodie Haydon.

Mr Albanese bought the four-bedroom, three-bathroom mansion last month and is expected to settle on the property at the end of October.

But while buying up the Seachange property may have seemed like a good idea at the time, political strategists warned it sent the wrong message to voters and suggested he was out of touch.

Online listings offer the ‘architecturally designed’ home ‘uninterrupted views of the ocean and Sydney skyline from all levels’ while being within walking distance of the beach.

“A prime location to enjoy year-round sunshine, whale watching or spectacular sunsets,” the listings say.

The house – just a short drive from Mr Albanese’s soon-to-be in-laws – also features expansive open-plan living and dining areas, a large downstairs guest bedroom, an additional north-facing entertaining terrace bathed in sunlight, a large double garage with internal access and a rotating field.

Although the price tag is well beyond the reach of most home buyers, Mr Albanese will appreciate the full impact of the country’s rising real estate prices as the mansion is selling for just $1.7 million in 2017.

Still, he’s done better than the previous owners, who bought the house for $4.65 in 2021 and had to shave $300,000 off that price to offload the property after it sat on the market for almost a full year.

It has been revealed the Prime Minister is buying a house on the NSW Central Coast

Mr Albanese told 2GB’s Ben Fordham last month that he was keen to live close to his future father-in-law after he settled down.

“I’m about to marry Jodie and start a new chapter in our lives,” Albanese told Fordham.

‘Jodie is a coastie and spending time with her up there is great. It will be nice to be closer to her parents and her family one day.”

But Kos Samaras, RedBridge’s director of strategy and analysis, said the grandeur of the overspending might not sit well with struggling voters..

“If it was just a normal suburban house … $4 million, in Sydney terms, would probably be in the middle of the range today,” Mr Samaras said.

‘So it is also the location. If it had been a house he bought somewhere in town, I don’t think we’d be having this discussion, even if it cost $4 million.

“If it was a $4 million house in Manly or parts of Sydney, people would say, ‘Okay, it’s rubbish when it comes to the housing market’ – no one will have a conversation about this.

‘I fundamentally believe that this is because of the location. And look at the place, it’s a nice, beautiful house, nice view. They all made for terrible optics.”

The house is described as having ‘uninterrupted views of the ocean and Sydney skyline’

Mr Samaras said the purchase only reinforces a “preconception in the minds of voters that politicians on all sides have no problem when it comes to housing.”

“As a result, they (the politicians) do not feel the fear that they (the voters) currently feel regarding the price of rents and mortgages,” he said.

“Albanese’s problem now will be that if he tries to appear empathetic, it will be extremely difficult.

“If Labor plans to do anything drastic to reverse the empathy deficit they are suffering from, it will essentially be destroyed.”

Mr Samaras defended the timing of Mr Albanese’s purchase, which he said “got out of hand given his personal circumstances”.

“He came across the house he really wanted to buy… the house maybe hadn’t been on the market that long, so you could see why he did it,” he said.

‘It is also probably the reason why other Prime Ministers have not entered the property market during their time in office, as this sends a strong negative signal to the electorate.

Mr Albanese came under fire for the purchase amid a cost-of-living crisis

His new home has wood-lined cathedral ceilings and open living and dining areas

‘That is why the coalition relies on the statement that it is his retirement home and that he should retire. It’s actually quite clever.’

Richard Denniss, leader of left-wing think tank The Australia Institute, added that millions of young Australians are struggling to repay HECS while paying high rents.

“I think a lot of them are really going to have a hard time understanding how a government employee can afford a $4.3 million house,” he said.

“But the fact is that for those old enough and fortunate enough to have owned a home for decades, the rapid rise in home prices has provided a huge, tax-free financial windfall,” he said.

‘While renters and first home buyers may be experiencing a ‘home affordability crisis’, millions of older Australians, including the Prime Minister, have benefited enormously from the recent rise in house prices.

‘For them, the so-called housing crisis is really a celebration. But for many it is better described as a crisis of inequality.”

The 790 square meter house offers ‘sun, whale watching or spectacular sunsets’ all year round

Making an announcement about housing in Brisbane, Mr Albanese again said his wife-to-be was a “proud Coastalist” and that “when your relationship changes, your life changes”.

He acknowledged that he had been “lucky” and made a good living as prime minister, but said he also understood “what it is like to struggle” through his mother.

These comments have done little to defuse the controversy over not only the purchase, but also its timing, as Labor gears up for the next federal election in 2025.

According to housing website Domain, the property was sold in September for an undisclosed price. Before that, the coastal house last changed owners in 2021.

The 790-square-foot home features wood-lined cathedral ceilings, open living and dining areas and “year-round sunshine, whale watching or spectacular sunsets.”

The apparent purchase comes after Mr Albanese scuttled a planned October 12 auction of his Dulwich Hill rental property, opting instead to put the house on the market.

The Prime Minister sparked controversy when he announced earlier this year that he would be evicting long-term tenant Jim Flanagan.

Mr Albanese’s new premises are in Copacabana on the central coast, where the Prime Minister’s fiancée is from

It comes after the Prime Minister decided to sell a rental property in Dulwich Hill earlier this year

Mr Albanese defended the move, saying it was a consolidation of his portfolio before his marriage and that he had been renting the house at half the market rent since Covid.

Despite the controversy, the prime minister is far from the only politician – Labor, Liberals or minor parties – to own multiple properties, some of which are available to rent.

Of the 227 sitting MPs, at least 75 owned more than two homes, with Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the Liberal Party’s Karen Andrews leading the list with seven each.

Fewer than one in three federal politicians reported owning one home, the most notable of which was 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 Country Liberal Party, Ralph Babet of the Untied Australia Party and Bob Katter are among a small group who do not own property.