Perth councils and real-estate agencies scramble to fix duplicate image problem plaguing property listings this week

Perth's overheated property market has a new headache. This week, multiple real-estate agencies across the metropolitan corridor discovered that automated image-syncing tools used to push listings to major property portals had been duplicating, misplacing, and in some cases swapping photographs between entirely separate properties. The problem surfaced publicly on Tuesday, July 1, when buyers flagged listings on Realestate.com.au showing the same kitchen photograph attached to three different homes across Balcatta, Girrawheen, and Karrinyup.

The timing matters. Perth's housing market is under extraordinary pressure, with immigration-driven demand pushing median house prices to levels that leave buyers dependent almost entirely on digital listings before inspections. When photographs are wrong, buyers waste time — and in a market where properties in the northern suburbs are being snapped up within days of listing, wasted time translates directly into missed opportunities and, for vendors, potential liability.

How it happened and who is affected

The issue traces to a software update pushed by a third-party image-management platform used by at least a dozen agencies operating out of offices along the Stirling Highway corridor and in Joondalup's central business district. The update, believed to have rolled out on the evening of June 30, altered the way listing IDs were assigned during bulk photo uploads. When agents uploaded batches of property images in the days that followed, the platform's deduplication algorithm flagged legitimate but visually similar images — two beige carpeted bedrooms in different houses, for example — and merged or suppressed them, sometimes pulling in replacement images from unrelated listings stored in the same agency's archive.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, which represents agents statewide, confirmed on Thursday it had received complaints and was in contact with affected members. No figure for the total number of affected listings has been confirmed publicly. Agencies in Subiaco, Claremont, and the southern suburb of Cockburn Central are among those that have begun manual audits of their active listing portfolios to identify and correct errors before weekend open homes.

REIWA's consumer guidance page, updated on Thursday, July 3, advises buyers to cross-check any listing's photos against the floor plan, verify the suburb and street address, and if in doubt contact the listing agent directly before driving to an inspection. That advice is practical but places the burden on buyers rather than resolving the source problem.

Agencies race to audit before the weekend open-home rush

The weekend open-home schedule is the pressure point. Perth's inspection culture is intensely Saturday-focused, and principals at several Joondalup-based agencies said staff were working through Friday to manually verify photo sets on every active listing before morning. One agency in Karrinyup pulled seven listings offline temporarily on Thursday afternoon to rebuild their image sets from scratch rather than risk a legal dispute over misleading representations.

The WA Department of Commerce, which administers the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978, has the authority to investigate complaints about misleading property advertising. Buyers who attended an inspection based on photographs that proved to belong to a different property have grounds to lodge a complaint, though the department has not yet announced any formal investigation into this week's incidents.

For sellers, the risk is more than reputational. Under WA consumer protection law, a misrepresentation in a property advertisement — even an inadvertent one — can complicate settlement if a buyer argues their decision was materially influenced by incorrect images.

The practical advice for anyone active in the Perth market this weekend is straightforward: before driving to a Saturday inspection in Balcatta, Girrawheen, or anywhere else in the northern suburbs, phone the agent and ask them to confirm verbally that the photographs on the listing match the property. Check that the number of bedrooms, the presence or absence of a pool, and the general street-facing facade in the photos are consistent with Google Street View. If the listing was published between June 30 and July 3, treat the images with extra caution until agencies complete their audits. The platform provider had not issued a public statement as of press time on Friday morning.