Perth's Property Listings Flooded With Duplicate Images — Here's Why It Costs Real Residents Real Money

Perth's housing market is running hot enough without adding another problem. But a growing number of listings on major real estate platforms are carrying duplicate, recycled, or outright mismatched photographs — images pulled from previous tenancies, neighbouring properties, or stock libraries — and consumer advocates say the practice is no longer a minor nuisance. It is shaping decisions in a city where the median house price passed $800,000 earlier this year and rental vacancy rates have hovered near historic lows.

The issue has sharpened because of the pace of Perth's population growth. Western Australia's net overseas migration has pushed demand into suburbs that were, two years ago, considered outer fringe. Prospective tenants in Midland, Balga, and Armadale are often applying for properties they have never physically inspected, relying entirely on listing photographs to judge whether a home is suitable. When those photos belong to a different property — or a version of the same property from five years and two renovation cycles ago — applicants commit time, application fees, and emotional energy to a product that does not exist as advertised.

What Duplicate Images Actually Look Like on the Ground

The mechanics are straightforward. A property manager uploads a set of photos when a property first hits the market. The listing is eventually pulled, but the image set stays in the agency's content management system. Months or years later, a new tenancy opens at the same address — or occasionally a different address entirely — and the old images are republished, either through inattention or deliberate time-saving. In a suburb like Cannington, where brick-and-tile homes from the same 1970s estate can look nearly identical, the swap can go undetected for weeks.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has published guidance on disclosure obligations for property listings, and the state's Consumer Protection division within the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety handles complaints about misleading representations under the Australian Consumer Law. A representative from Consumer Protection confirmed to The Daily Perth this week that image-related complaints relating to rental listings have formed part of its caseload, though the division declined to provide a specific complaint count for the 2025-26 financial year ahead of its annual reporting period.

Domain and realestate.com.au both operate automated duplicate-detection tools at a platform level, but those tools are designed primarily to catch the same image appearing simultaneously on competing listings — not to flag a photo that is republished months apart. The gap is wide enough to drive a removalist van through.

The Practical Toll on Perth Renters and Buyers

The financial exposure is tangible. A standard rental application through a WA agency now typically involves a $50–$80 administration processing component in third-party application platforms such as 1Form. For a renter who applies to four or five properties before securing one — a realistic number in the current market — the total outlay reaches several hundred dollars, not counting the cost of taking leave from work to attend inspections. If the property inspected bears no resemblance to the listing, that outlay is wasted.

For buyers, the stakes are higher. Open homes in suburbs like Yokine and Scarborough regularly draw dozens of attendees. If a listing's photograph set shows a renovated kitchen that was actually installed in a neighbouring property on the same street, a buyer may prioritise that open home over others and miss an opportunity elsewhere. Perth's current market conditions — where properties in the northern corridor between Stirling and Joondalup are sometimes selling within days of listing — leave little margin for that kind of misdirection.

The Metronet expansion has added a further complication. Suburbs within walking distance of new or upgraded stations, including Morley and Ellenbrook, are seeing rapid property turnover. Listings in these areas churn frequently enough that stale image sets are more likely to resurface, precisely in the locations where buyer and renter interest is highest.

The practical advice for anyone currently searching: cross-reference listing photos against the property's street view on Google Maps, request a written confirmation from the agent that all images are current and specific to the advertised address, and lodge a complaint with Consumer Protection WA — reachable at its Perth CBD office on Westralia Square, 141 St Georges Terrace — if a property materially misrepresents its condition or features. In this market, verification is not paranoia. It is due diligence.