Perth Leads Australian Cities in Cracking Down on Duplicate Property Listing Images — But Global Rivals Are Moving Faster

Perth's property market is generating a new headache for buyers, renters and regulators alike: duplicate and misleading listing images that misrepresent homes during one of the most competitive rental and sales periods the city has seen in decades. Local real estate oversight bodies are scrambling to respond, but cities like Amsterdam, Auckland and Toronto are already years ahead.

The problem matters right now because Perth is absorbing an extraordinary volume of new residents. Immigration-driven demand, AUKUS-related defence workforce expansion tied to HMAS Stirling at Garden Island, and Metronet construction activity have all pushed vacancy rates to historic lows across suburbs from Balga to Bibra Lake. When rental stock turns over fast and landlords relist quickly, the same set of photographs — sometimes years old, sometimes from a different property entirely — resurfaces on platforms like realestate.com.au and Domain, leaving prospective tenants paying application fees based on images that bear no resemblance to the actual dwelling.

What Perth Is Doing About It

Consumer Protection WA, the state agency that handles real estate complaints, has flagged misleading property advertising as a priority area under the Fair Trading Act 2010. The agency sits within the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, which has offices on Mason Street in Cannington and handles licensing for the roughly 6,000 registered real estate agents operating across Western Australia. In the 2025–26 financial year, the agency received a measurably higher volume of complaints related to property advertising than the prior year, according to the department's publicly reported data — though the exact figure has not yet been released ahead of the annual report due in September 2026.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, based in West Perth, updated its professional standards guide in early 2026 to specifically address the use of outdated or non-representative listing photography. The Institute has urged member agencies to implement image-audit procedures before relisting any property that has previously been on the market within the preceding 24 months. Compliance, however, remains voluntary.

Technology is part of the local response. At least two Perth-based proptech startups operating out of the Spacecubed innovation hub on St Georges Terrace have been developing reverse-image-search tools designed to flag when a listing photograph appears to have been used previously under a different address. Neither company has yet secured a government contract, though conversations with Commerce and Lands have been reported in industry circles.

How Global Cities Compare

The contrast with comparable markets overseas is stark. Amsterdam's housing authority began mandating timestamped photography for all publicly listed rentals in 2024, a requirement enforced through the city's digital listing portal. Auckland introduced a voluntary accreditation scheme for listing accuracy in 2023 under the Real Estate Agents Authority, which has since recorded a measurable drop in image-related complaints. Toronto went further in late 2025, requiring that any listing photograph more than 90 days old carry a visible watermark on platforms operating in Ontario.

Perth has no equivalent mandatory framework. Housing Minister John Carey's department has focused its reform energy primarily on rent caps, bond limits and the Residential Tenancies Act amendments that took effect in July 2025, leaving image accuracy as a second-tier concern. Critics within the property industry argue that given the pace of population growth — Western Australia's net overseas migration was running above 60,000 people annually as of mid-2025, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics — the window to implement proactive standards is closing.

For Perth renters and buyers navigating a market where a three-bedroom house in Cannington or Morley can receive more than 60 enquiries within 48 hours of listing, the practical advice from Consumer Protection WA is straightforward: request a current dated photo of the property before submitting an application, ask the agent when the listing images were taken, and lodge a formal complaint through the department's online portal if an inspection reveals a significant discrepancy from the advertised photographs. Complaints made before a lease is signed carry more weight than those made after. The agency's response-time target is 10 business days for standard advertising complaints.