Anthony Albanese lists $1.9m Sydney investment property
By Lucy Macken
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has put his Dulwich Hill investment property in Sydney’s inner west up for sale with a $1.9 million guide price in what is one of this spring’s most anticipated, if not unexpected, listings.
What makes the three-bedroom semi so prominent amid the current listings rush is not just the fact it is owned by Australia’s 31st prime minister, or that to many of his constituents the property represents his rise not only to the country’s highest office but from his childhood in social housing to local landlord.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined the spring selling rush, listing his Dulwich Hill investment house.
That might have been all there was to say about the house, except that then there was a media maelstrom kicked off in May after the former tenant went public about having to move out.
At the time the Labor leader made no secret of his wish to sell his investment of the past nine years in a bid to simplify his life, and real estate portfolio.
Jodie Haydon and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expected to marry in the coming year.Credit: James Brickwood
After all, when Albanese bought the two-storey house he was married to former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt, and the property sale comes as he and his partner, Jodie Haydon, make plans for their wedding next year.
But when the then tenant, music venue owner Jim Flanagan, was advised he had three months to move out given the pending sale, he went public to News Corp newspapers about the fact he had to vacate the property.
Flanagan had hoped to use the opportunity as a chance to bring attention to the plight of renters across Sydney given the current rental market squeeze and the lack of regulatory protections that leave a power imbalance between landlords and renters.
Adding grist to the mill, it coincided with the federal budget’s $6.2 billion housing plan to ease the housing shortage and fund more social housing and homelessness services.
But it wasn’t just the contemporary interiors, third bathroom, separate study and open-plan living and dining area that made Flanagan want to stay. Having initially leased the house for $880 a week four years ago, Albanese had dropped the price to $680 a week during COVID and left it unchanged since.
The Dulwich Hill house last traded in 2015 for $1,175,000.
Flanagan went so far as to tell News Corp at the time that he had “mixed emotions in calling this out. I voted for Albo at the last election and am broadly a supporter of his policies.”
Dulwich Hill values have risen.Credit:
What followed was days of newspaper columns, talkback radio and television coverage in which Flanagan tried to hose down suggestions he was trying to embarrass the prime minister, but which gave rise to plenty of commentators weighing in on the issue, in some cases vilifying his stance and in others championing his cause.
Albanese was even forced to defend his decision to Radio National presenter Patricia Karvelas, saying: “In [Flanagan’s] own words I have been a more than fair owner of that property.”
Albanese added: “He’s been well looked after for a long period of time, but I am entitled to make decisions in my personal life.”
Flanagan has since moved on, renting an apartment nearby, and the house has been listed with Albo’s agent of choice, The Agency’s co-founder Shad Hassen ahead of an October 12 auction.
In what is expected to be a happy ending, values in Dulwich Hill have soared in the nine years since Albanese bought the house for $1,175,000.
Domain data shows the local house median house price rose 92.8 per cent since 2015 to a median of $2.28 million, and almost 22 per cent of the rise was in the 12 months to June.