Anthony Albanese’s latest big money property deal will be divisive | Samantha Maiden

It’s one thing to be loaded after decades in parliament but it’s another to flaunt it so close to an election, writes Samantha Maiden.

Anthony Albanese is killing it. He’s just bought a luxe clifftop mansion in a town that shares a name with that dark 1970s Barry Manilow classic Copacabana.

He picked it up for a steal – $300,000 less than the $4.65 million the current owners paid for it when houses were getting top dollar during the Covid lockdowns three years ago.

The PM can thank the RBA for that too because all that interest rate pain really can be cashed-up baby boomers gain when it’s time to upgrade and you’ve got buckets of equity.

It’s driving prices down and that’s good news for wealthy investors looking towards the long game with a bargain. Take the PM for example.

Born and bred in public housing, he now owns three homes – a $2.5 million family home in Marrickville he rents out, a Dulwich Hill investment property he is flogging with a price guide of $1.85 million and a new pad worth $4.3 million.

You may recall he booted out the Dulwich Hill renter who went to the newspapers to complain.

After the 2022 election he offloaded his Canberra crash pad that he spent years claiming around $300 a night in travel allowance to sleep in when he travelled to the nation’s capital.

A nice little earner for MPs since way back.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

But back to Copacabana.

It’s understood there will be a big mortgage, raising the tantalising prospect that he can negatively gear the property and secure a big tax deduction while he’s living rent-free at the Lodge in Canberra with Toto the female cavoodle.

In fact, according to realestate.com.au it could deliver a tax deduction bonanza if he chose to rent the property out.

Analysis from tax advisory group MCG Quantity Surveyors, which was not involved in the transaction, shows the Prime Minister would be able to write off tens of thousands of dollars off his tax bill.

MCG calculated the likely amounts he would be able to claim against his taxes in various scenarios, revealing he’d be able to get up to $87,000 a year in negative gearing concessions.

Winner. Winner. Chicken dinner.

Which is another reason, in my humble opinion, that MPs should be required to declare when they are negatively gearing properties for tax reasons in the parliamentary register of interests.

Not because there’s anything wrong with minimising your tax using perfectly legal methods. But in the interests of transparency.

And yes we’ve asked and no he’s not saying.

The Prime Minister’s office insists it will all be properly disclosed when the property is settled, but there’s no requirement to reveal if the property is negatively geared.

Anthony Albanese's newly purchased residence in Copacabana, NSW. Picture: Supplied,

He picked it up for a steal – $300,000 less than the $4.65 million the current owners paid for it when the houses were getting top dollar during the Covid lockdowns three years ago. Picture: Supplied,

So unless some brave journalist or radio host steps forward to ask him we will never know.

Surely it should be disclosed, given the PM and Treasurer are periodically urged to consider changes to negative gearing rules by Treasury and lobby groups.

The PM clearly has a dog in this race, and it’s a $4.3 million dog on a cliff top in Copacabana.

But that still begs the question why now? Why buy a $4 million clifftop mansion if you don’t have one eye on the exits?

All of which has left some Labor MPs scratching their heads over why the PM decided this was the right time to buy a new luxury house – just months out from an election where housing affordability will be a major issue.

The listing reveals the property is “within easy walk of the beach” and features “uninterrupted ocean and Sydney skyline views from all levels”.

But in news that made like-minded individuals snort-laugh, his Labor colleagues are “rallying around him” over unkind criticism of his executive decision to plonk $4.3 million large on his new home.

Not since Bob Hawke paraded in his budgie smugglers with bikini-clad lovelies at Terrigal in the 1970s has the NSW Central Coast exploded so perfectly into political life.

Although that’s possibly missing the golden moment that former NSW Labor MP Belinda Neal was accused of telling the bar staff at Iguana Joes down the road in Gosford – “don’t you know who I am” – and allegedly sticking the names of her political enemies in her actual freezer (a claim she denies).

If he ever wants to pay homage to this Labor history, the Terrigal shops are just a 15-minute drive from his new digs. Iguana Joes, which now goes by a different name, is a 25-minute jaunt.

While older voters probably won’t begrudge the PM and his bride-to-be a beautiful new home, there’s a good proportion of younger voters who can’t get into the housing market or a decent rental.

And it’s fair to say that for some of them at least, it really grinds their gears.

It’s one thing to be blessedly loaded after being in parliament since the 1990s and looking forward to a golden handshake under the old parliamentary super scheme when you retire.

It’s another thing to rub voters’ noses in it, metaphorically speaking, so close to the election.