Duplicate Images in Property Listings Are Costing Perth Sellers Thousands — Here's What Officials and Experts Are Saying

Perth's superheated property market has a quality problem hiding in plain sight. Duplicate images — photographs reused across multiple listings, sometimes for entirely different properties — are appearing with increasing frequency on major real estate portals, and the organisations responsible for protecting buyers say the issue is getting harder to ignore.

The problem matters right now because Perth's residential market is absorbing wave after wave of demand. Immigration-driven population growth, AUKUS-related defence workforce arrivals at HMAS Stirling in Rockingham, and the ongoing Metronet-linked corridor development stretching from Ellenbrook to Yanchep have pushed vacancy rates to near-record lows and compressed the time buyers have to make decisions. When a listing in Baldivis or Butler carries recycled images from a different suburb's sale campaign, buyers acting quickly — often without an in-person inspection — are the ones bearing the risk.

What Officials and Advocates Are Pointing To

Consumer Protection WA, the state agency sitting within the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, has publicly acknowledged that misleading representation in property advertising falls under the Australian Consumer Law as applied in Western Australia. The agency has materials on its website explaining that agents and vendors have obligations not to create a false impression of a property. It has not issued a specific enforcement notice regarding duplicate images as of this week, but the regulatory framework that would cover such conduct is already in place.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, headquartered on Havelock Street in West Perth, has a code of conduct that requires member agents to act honestly and with due care. Industry representatives have previously stated that listings content is ultimately the responsibility of the agent or agency publishing it, not the portal. That distinction matters for enforcement, because the major platforms — realestate.com.au and Domain — operate under their own content policies and are not directly regulated by state licensing law.

Digital property verification specialists have pointed out that the technical fix is straightforward. Reverse-image search tools can flag recycled photography within seconds. Several proptech firms operating out of the Perth CBD have built automated compliance checking into their listing pipelines. The gap, practitioners say, is not technology — it is whether agencies face any consequence for skipping the check.

The Scale of the Problem and What Buyers Can Do

National research published by the property data firm CoreLogic in 2025 found that image discrepancies — ranging from outright duplicates to outdated photographs that no longer reflected the property's condition — appeared in a measurable share of metropolitan listings reviewed in a sample audit. CoreLogic did not break out Perth-specific figures in the publicly available summary, but the study flagged high-turnover corridors in outer suburban growth areas as particularly susceptible. Perth's northern growth corridor, including suburbs such as Alkimos and Eglinton, fits that description precisely.

The WA state budget, which delivered a surplus of $3.2 billion in the 2024–25 financial year according to the Department of Treasury, has provided the government with capacity to fund consumer protection programs. Advocates have argued this is the moment to direct some of that capacity toward digital literacy campaigns targeting first-home buyers who are most likely to rely solely on listing photographs when assessing a property.

For buyers moving now, the practical advice from licensed conveyancers at firms along St Georges Terrace and licensed building inspectors working across the metropolitan area is consistent: never waive a physical inspection, use free reverse-image search tools such as Google Images or TinEye before making an offer, and request that the agent confirm in writing that all images relate specifically to the property being sold. If images look professionally staged but the listing price sits well below comparable properties in Fremantle or Mount Hawthorn, that mismatch is worth querying directly before signing anything.

Consumer Protection WA's complaints line remains open, and formal complaints about misleading property advertising can be lodged through its online portal. The agency has the power to refer matters to the State Administrative Tribunal where an agent is found to have breached licensing obligations under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978. Whether the volume of complaints reaches a threshold that triggers a formal industry review will depend, in part, on how many buyers start filing them.