Anthony Albanese nixes plans to auction troubled Sydney investment home
Written by admin on October 12, 2024
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pulled his investment property in Sydney’s Inner West from going to auction on Saturday, after evicting his tenant following years of “half-market” rent.
The three-bedroom townhouse at 29B Lewisham St in Dulwich Hill was slated to go under the hammer at 11am, October 12 with a $1.9m guide after it was purchased by the PM for $1.175m in 2015.
Instead, The Agency Inner West real estate agent Shad Hassan revealed this week that with no “firm commitment” from an interested buyer, they decided to instead put an asking price on the home.
“Albo and I decided that it’s best not to waste time, it’s definitely worth the money and we’ll be having people come take a look at it over the weekend if we put an asking price on it,” he told realestate.com.
The move to nix the forthcoming auction is only the latest in a long line of controversies for Mr Albanese surrounding the property, specifically the forcing out of his longtime tenant earlier this year.
The Prime Minister signalled earlier this year that he intended to sell the property so as to simply his financial affairs ahead of his upcoming wedding to longtime partner and now-fiancé, Jodie Haydon.
The move meant that Jim Flanagan, who had rented the townhouse home for four years, was going to be evicted and was issued an eviction notice giving him just 90 days to leave in May this year.
At the time, Mr Albanese told the ABC the rent, cut to $680pw during Covid – opposed to the $800-$1200 for comparable properties in Dulwich Hill – and never raised, was “half market rent”.
For his part, Mr Flanagan – who runs a venue in the same area – told the Daily Telegraph in May that the eviction notice had “hit him like a steam train” and lashed out at Mr Albanese.
“This will kill me, it’s a crippling blow right now. I have mixed emotions in calling this out. I voted for Albo at the last election and am broadly a supporter of his policies,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“He has every right to seek to sell his assets … on one hand he’s trying to be sympathetic with the majority of Australians who are, like me, finding the current climate extremely challenging.”
The eviction came after the announcement of a $1.9 billion cost of package to cut rental costs for vulnerable Australians in the federal budget which was handed down that same month.
