Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday halted the auction of his investment properties in Sydney’s Inner West after evicting his tenant after years of “half-market rents”.
The three-bedroom townhouse at 29B Lewisham St in Dulwich Hill was due to go under the hammer at 11am on October 12 with a guide of $1.9 million, after being bought by the Prime Minister in 2015 for $1.175 million.
Instead, estate agent Shad Hassan of The Agency Inner West revealed this week that, with no ‘firm commitment’ from an interested buyer, they decided to put an asking price on the house instead.
“Albo and I decided it was best not to waste our time, it’s well worth the money and we’ll have people come and see it this weekend when we put an asking price on it,” he told realestate.com.
The move to scrap the upcoming auction is just the latest in a long line of controversies for Mr Albanese surrounding the property, most notably the forced departure of its long-time tenant earlier this year.
The Prime Minister announced earlier this year that he planned to sell the property to simplify his financial affairs ahead of his upcoming wedding to long-time partner and now fiancée Jodie Haydon.
The move meant that Jim Flanagan, who had rented the mansion for four years, would be evicted and he was served an eviction notice in May this year, giving him just 90 days to leave.
At the time, Mr Albanese told the ABC that the rent, which had been reduced to $680 per week during Covid – as opposed to the $800-$1,200 for similar properties in Dulwich Hill – and never increased, was “half market rent”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured with fiancée Jodie Haydon) withdrew his investment property in Sydney’s inner west from auction on Saturday
The three-bedroom townhouse at 29B Lewisham St in Dulwich Hill (pictured) was due to go under the hammer at 11am on October 12 with a guide of $1.9 million
The investment property (pictured) was purchased by the Prime Minister in 2015 for $1.175 million
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 at this point. I have mixed feelings about bringing this up. “I voted for Albo at the last election and am broadly in favor of his policies,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“He has every right to try to sell his assets… on the one hand he is trying to be sympathetic to the majority of Australians who, like me, find the current climate extremely challenging.”
The eviction came after the announcement of a $1.9 billion package to reduce rental costs for vulnerable Australians in the federal budget passed the same month.