Perth Homeowners Caught Out by Duplicate Property Images — and It's Costing Them Thousands

Perth homebuyers are losing deposits, missing settlements and in some cases purchasing properties that look nothing like what was advertised online — all because of duplicate and incorrectly assigned listing images circulating across real estate portals. The issue, long dismissed as a minor administrative glitch, has escalated sharply as the city's housing market posts record turnover volumes, with Consumer Protection WA fielding 47 formal complaints specifically referencing misleading property images in the first five months of 2026 alone.

The timing matters. Perth's median house price hit $847,000 in June, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, and buyer competition in suburbs like Balga, Armadale and Midland — areas where first-home buyers are concentrated — means decisions are being made fast, often on the basis of a handful of photographs viewed on a phone screen. When those photos belong to a different property, or are pulled from a previous listing that showed the home before major renovations or demolition of a structure, the consequences land hard.

What's Actually Happening on the Ground

The mechanics are straightforward. When a property is relisted — either for sale or rent — agents upload new photos to platforms including realestate.com.au and Domain. But internal database errors, manual upload mistakes and, in some cases, deliberate image recycling mean photographs from a neighbouring address or a previous vendor's listing get attached to the wrong property ID. Buyers conducting remote searches, including the thousands of interstate and overseas arrivals relocating to Perth under AUKUS-related defence contracts based around Henderson and Stirling Naval Base, are particularly exposed because they cannot easily do a drive-by check before making an offer.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia confirmed it updated its Code of Conduct guidelines in March 2026 to require agents to verify image accuracy at the point of every new listing, but enforcement sits with Consumer Protection WA, a division of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. That agency does not have the staffing to audit individual listings proactively. It acts on complaints.

Community Legal WA, which operates a free advice clinic out of its Perth CBD office on Murray Street, says it has seen a notable uptick in clients seeking advice after discovering a rental property's listing photos showed a fully renovated kitchen that turned out to belong to the unit next door. In at least three cases this year the organisation has documented, tenants signed 12-month leases at $650 a week or more on the basis of images that did not match the property they moved into.

The Practical Risk for Perth Renters and Buyers

For buyers, the legal exposure is messier. Once a contract of sale is signed and the cooling-off period — five business days under Western Australian law — has expired, unwinding a purchase on the grounds of misleading imagery requires proving misrepresentation under the Australian Consumer Law, a process that can cost $15,000 or more in legal fees before any settlement is reached. Settlement Services International, which runs housing support programs for newly arrived migrants and refugees across the inner northern corridor including Mirrabooka and Nollamara, flagged the issue to WA Housing Minister John Carey's office in April, noting that clients with limited English were among the most vulnerable.

The state government has not yet announced specific legislative changes to address the image accuracy problem, but a spokeswoman for Consumer Protection WA confirmed the agency is reviewing whether existing prescribed penalty provisions — currently capped at $10,000 per offence for individual agents under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 — are sufficient to deter the behaviour.

Anyone who has recently signed a lease or a sale contract should pull their agreement documents and cross-reference every room shown in the listing photographs against the property address before settlement or move-in day. If something does not match, lodge a complaint with Consumer Protection WA at their Osborne Park office or via the online portal before the cooling-off window closes. Keep screenshots of the original listing — portals sometimes pull or update images after a sale is agreed, which makes proving the original representation significantly harder.