Labor MPs baffled by PM’s $4.3 million ‘clifftop perfection’ home buy

Anthony Albanese’s purchase of a $4.3 million property on the NSW Central Coast has baffled Labor MPs who have questioned the prime minister’s decision to buy a luxury home ahead of an election that will be fought on housing affordability.

Property records show the four-bedroom, three-bathroom and three-carport property in Copacabana, billed as “clifftop perfection”, sold in September, giving Albanese a potential post-politics residence in a pocket of the Central Coast popular among Sydney holidaymakers.

The “premiere location to enjoy sun, whale watching or spectacular sunsets year-round”, as the property listing reads, is close to the family of Albanese’s fiancee, Jodie Haydon, and shows how he has prospered since growing up in public housing.

But it has opened the prime minister to criticism from colleagues that he has misjudged the optics as voters battle high interest rates, rents and property prices.

Radio 2GB presenter Ben Fordham, who first reported the purchase, said on air that the property went for $4.3 million, less than the $4.65 million its previous owners paid in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic-driven boom in sea-change properties.

Albanese on Tuesday acknowledged Australians were struggling with the cost of living and said he empathised because of his upbringing in a council flat.

“Of course, I am much better off as prime minister, I earn a good income, I understand that,” he said at a press conference in Queensland.

“I also know what it is like to struggle. My mum lived in the one public housing [home] that she was born in for all of her 65 years.

“I know what it is like, which is why I want to help all Australians into a home.”

But four Labor MPs, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, expressed frustration with the prime minister’s decision.

“I can’t think of a greater act of self-sabotage in my life. I am gobsmacked,” one MP said, adding: “If you’re a Labor MP up against a Green at the next election, good luck.

“Some people [within Labor] were aware and tried to stop it. My instinct is this is f---ing terrible.”

Another MP said Albanese’s decision was personal.

“The idea that [Haydon], someone from the Central Coast, wants to live where they grew up, that’s fair enough,” they said. “[But] it’s not a good look.”

Two more MPs said at the very least, the prime minister should have delayed the purchase until after the election and his wedding to Haydon.

Labor has legislated a $10 billion fund for social and affordable housing, but its plans to help lower-income Australians buy 40,000 homes are stalled in parliament.

Sydney Labor MP Mike Freelander, who owns three properties, backed Albanese’s right to buy a house as “he has worked for a long time at a high level”.

“I don’t have a problem with the PM buying a house. That’s what it can cost in NSW these days,” he said.

The median four-bedroom house price in Copacabana is $1.82 million, according to Domain.

A spokesperson for Albanese said he and Haydon were buying on the Central Coast, where three generations of her family live, ahead of their wedding.

“When the process is complete, it will be declared on the parliamentary register,” the spokesperson said.

The register still includes Albanese’s Dulwich Hill investment property in Sydney’s inner west, which is for sale for $1.85 million after the prime minister’s last-minute decision to pull the house from auction last week.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton did not criticise Albanese for buying a new home but noted that many Australians were struggling after 13 interest rate increases from May 2022.

“I wish he and Jodie well. They’re obviously planning for the next stage of life post-politics and I wish them well in that,” Dutton told reporters on Tuesday.

In 2019, Dutton had four properties in Queensland. He has since sold them, retaining his family home in Dayboro, north of Brisbane. The Duttons’ beachfront Gold Coast property sold for $6 million in 2021.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather used Albanese’s purchase to accuse the major parties of creating an unfair property market.

“It’s a big concern that the Labor Party, 75 per cent of whom are property investors, and the Coalition, 65 per cent who are property investors, both oppose any changes to negative gearing with a capital gains tax discount,” Chandler-Mather said.

Albanese’s new home, which he is yet to settle on, has timber-lined cathedral ceilings above open-plan living spaces and bedrooms with ocean views. It also has a north-facing entertaining deck, a large downstairs guest room with a bathroom, a low-maintenance garden of tropical, native and salt-tolerant species and a double garage with internal access and off-street parking with a turning bay.

Asked whether he would retire to the property, Albanese said: “I am planning to be in my current job for a very long period of time.”

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