SYDNEY – With uninterrupted views from its clifftop position, four bedrooms and an easy walk down to the beach, the architecturally designed house north of Sydney has a lot to recommend it. Enough even to tempt a prime minister.

       But Australia’s Mr Anthony Albanese now finds himself facing public scrutiny after buying the expensive coastal property in the middle of a national housing crisis, provoking allegations from media and political opponents that he is out of touch with the average voter.

       Mr Albanese bought the property worth about A$4.3 million (S$3.8 million) with his partner Jodie Haydon, in the popular coastal region of Copacabana in his home state of New South Wales, local media reported this week.

       The Prime Minister said the purchase had been partly for his partner, whose family lives in the area, but added that he knew he had been “fortunate”.

       The son of a single mother, Mr Albanese grew up in public housing in a working class suburb of Sydney.

       “When your relationship changes, your life changes and you make decisions,” he told journalists on Oct 15. “I am much better off as prime minister. I earn a good income. I understand that. I understand that I’ve been fortunate, but I also know what it’s like to struggle.”

       Mr Albanese, leader of the centre-left Labor Party, earns more than A$550,000.

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       Local media showed pictures of a house in Copacabana with sweeping views and a large cliffside yard, which the reports identified as Mr Albanese’s new home.

       McGrath Avoca Real Estate Agency was handling the sale of that property, with agent Terence Dickinson saying in a post on Instagram that the house sold at auction and fetched a record price for the suburb.

       The news comes as Australian voters grow increasingly frustrated by a national housing crisis, which has seen house prices and rents soar due to a supply shortage and high migration in recent years. Housing is expected to be a major issue at the upcoming national election, due to be held by May 2025.

       Australian ministers have been repeatedly questioned by journalists over the appropriateness of Mr Albanese’s housing purchase, while the left-wing Greens Party politicians have criticised it as a symbol of a broken system.

       However, the opposition Liberal-National coalition parties have been reluctant to criticise Mr Albanese, with Liberal leader Peter Dutton saying it was a “matter for the prime minister”.

       Part of that may be due to the large property portfolios that have been amassed by Australian lawmakers across the political divide. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 33 current lawmakers own four or more properties, with two declaring seven on their register of interests. BLOOMBERG