Mark Carney, the Bank of England's incoming governor, will get a £250,000 accommodation allowance when he takes up the post next July.
Carney is relocating to the UK from Canada, where he is currently governor of the country's central bank.
The accommodation allowance, which will be subject to tax and social security contributions, is on top of his £480,000 salary, £175,000 more than the current governor, Sir Mervyn King, takes home.
Carney will take up the post next summer
The Bank said the higher salary was to compensate for his not being able to join the closed pension scheme.
It said the cost of enrolling him in the scheme would have been more than 100% of his salary. Instead he is receiving a 30% cash allowance in lieu of pension.
Carney, 47, is the first non-British citizen to be appointed to the top job at the BoE. The job is considered to be one of the most powerful in Britain with the BoE taking on extra responsibilities for banking supervision as part of an overhaul of financial regulation following the economic crisis.
Prior to taking up the role of governor of the Bank of Canada, Carney spent 13 years at investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, a firm now synonymous with excessive pay and risky banking.
David Cameron's official spokesman declined to comment on Mr Carney's housing allowance, telling a regular Westminster media briefing: "The prime minister's view is that Mr Carney is an excellent appointment.
"The government's view is that it says a lot that we are able to attract a candidate of such international calibre."
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said Carney's large salary comes with scrutiny.
"This huge remuneration package is one of the biggest in the public sector," he said.
"After some spectacular failures at the Bank of England, hard-pressed families are hoping that Carney can help mend our broken financial system.
"Now that the full details of his pay and perks are out in the open, it is up to politicians to hold him to account and help taxpayers judge for themselves whether he is worth all this money.
"When the government is rightly planning to cap housing benefit, it will certainly stick in the throat of many that Mr Carney is receiving more per year in housing allowance than the average price of a British home."