A tenant has begged Anthony Albanese not to make him homeless after the Prime Minister served him with an eviction notice.
Jim Flanagan, 45, has lived at one of Mr Albanese’s investment properties in the western Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill for four years, but has been given 90 days to pack up and move out.
The Prime Minister’s property portfolio was previously estimated to be worth around $5 million, although he sold a two-bedroom apartment in Canberra in 2022.
Mr Albanese grew up in public housing in Sydney but now owns a mortgage-free bungalow in Marrickville and the three-bedroom townhouse in Dulwich Hill.
The Prime Minister now divides his time between The Lodge in Canberra and Kirribilli House in Sydney, rent and mortgage free.
Mr Flanagan was reluctant to make his situation public but felt he had no other choice.
“This will kill me, it’s a crippling blow at this point,” he told the newspaper Daily telegram.
Jim Flanagan (pictured) has 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 Mr Flanagan received the eviction notice from his property on May 8, informing him that Mr Albanese ‘might sell the house at some point’.
“Please note that the landlord is demanding vacant possession of the property … 90 days after the service of this letter,” the notice said.
He then asked for clarification as to whether it was the landlord’s wish to vacate the property, which the agent confirmed.
The small business owner has a month-to-month lease and knows the Prime Minister has the right to sell the house.
But Mr Flanagan has been urged to try to stay on after reading about the Government’s $1.9 billion package to cut rental costs for vulnerable people, announced in Tuesday’s federal budget.
“It’s just not a good fit for (Mr Albanese) to sympathize with the majority of Australians who, like me, find the current climate extremely challenging,” Mr Flanagan said.
He said he voted Labor in the 2022 election and mainly supports the party’s policies, but he is doing it tough because the bar he owns is struggling.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon are pictured at Parliament House in Canberra
Mr Albanese reduced the rent for Mr Flanagan and his then partner to $680 a week during the pandemic and has not increased it since.
Mr Flanagan added that the Prime Minister “has been a great landlord” and “very generous”.
But if he is evicted, his rent for a similar property in the same area, a short walk from his bar, will likely be about $800 a week.
Mr Flanagan’s former partner has previously opened up about what it was like having the Prime Minister as a landlord.
In a video on TikTok in 2022, she praised Mr Albanese for “living the values he preaches” by cutting her rent by 25 per cent at the start of the Covid pandemic – and maintaining that reduced rate two years later.
Anthony Albanese also owns this home in Marrickville (pictured), which is also currently rented
Mr. Albanese, who estimates he earns about $115,000 a year from his real estate investments, said Wednesday evening that he was selling because of “changes in my personal life.”
These changes are believed to reflect his upcoming wedding to Ms Haydon after the couple got engaged in February.
He bought the Dulwich Hill estate in 2015 for $1.175 million, and it is now estimated to be worth between $1.9 million and $2.2 million.
Mr Albanese also rents out his former home in Marrickville, also in Sydney’s inner west, for $1,350 a week.