SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched a new building programme to address a critical housing shortage on Tuesday, the same day news of his plans to buy a A$4.3 million ($2.9 million) seaside home dominated national headlines.

Albanese's centre-left Labor government has pledged to build 1.2 million homes by 2030 to help ease cost pressures in one of the world's most expensive housing markets.

The issue has special resonance with a federal election looming and the centre-left Labor government now polling behind their conservative opponents.

At a press conference called to announce plans to build more than a thousand homes in Queensland state, many low-cost, Albanese was instead peppered with questions about the ocean front home he is planning to purchase with his fiancee.

"I earn a good income. I understand that. I understand that I've been fortunate," he said.

"But I also know what it's like to struggle. My mum lived in the one public housing that she was born in for all of her 65 years...which is why I want to help all Australians into a home."

Albanese proposed to his partner Jodie Haydon in February and the new home on the central coast, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Sydney, is near where her family lives.

Australia's central bank has raised rates 13 times since 2022 but house prices have mostly shrugged off the higher borrowing costs. Home prices rose for the 19th straight month in September, an increase of 7.1% from a year earlier.

Sydney is the second-most expensive city worldwide for housing according to a measure that compares prices and incomes.

($1 = 1.4894 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Sam Holmes)