Pamela Anderson rental house gets squeezed in Living Away From Home clampdown
The infamous ultra-modern “Pamela Anderson” house in St Kilda West has been relisted at a reduced $1,350 weekly rental, down on the $1,500 being sought earlier this year.
Its executive leasing agent suggests its been caught in the weakening executive rental market after changes to the Federal Government's Living Away From Home Allowance which will take effect from October 1.Overseas and corporate executives and their companies will lose their current lucrative tax breaks on accommodation expenditure.
The Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, said the concessions were being "widely exploited". The tax break meant the Government was often paying half the corporate's rent when the accommodation was part of salary packages.
The Government is reforming the tax concession for Living Away From Home allowances and benefits, by better targeting it at people who are are legitimately living away from their actual home in Australia. The reforms are not expected to affect the tax concession for "fly-in fly-out" arrangements.
Leasing agents expect the upper end of rental housing markets in Melbourne and Sydney to weaken.
The three-storey, three-bedroom St Kilda West house comes with a gourmet kitchen, a north-facing terrace with lap pool, a private courtyard with pond and a two-car garage.
Recent tenants behind the internationally renowned façade in St Kilda West have included Hollywood glitterati, according to its last leasing agent.
Now it's available for rent through Capri Property leasing agent Judith Simpson, who is confident it will rent at its new pricing.
The Marshall White agency had listed the property last November for sale, but it appears no sale has eventuated at its desired $1.62 million asking price.
Designed by architect Cassandra Fahey in 2000, it won a Royal Australian Institute of Architects award, making news around the world given the Baywatch beauty’s appearance on the façade.
The former Geelong footballer and football commentator Sam Newman built the house at the height of his playboy notoriety, but never lived in it before he sold it for $1.1 million in mid-2002 to financial adviser Sean Patrick Taylor through a company called Canterbury Park Pty Ltd.
Dividing locals on its merits, the large glass mural façade on noisy Canterbury Road has been a source of controversy ever since it was unveiled a decade ago.
