Digital Ghost Images Are Costing Perth Homeowners — And Most Don't Know It Yet

Perth homeowners trying to sell or refinance are running into a problem they rarely see coming: outdated, duplicated, or mismatched property images attached to their address across real estate databases, council valuation systems, and listing aggregators. The issue, which property lawyers and conveyancers in the metro area have flagged with growing frequency this year, is creating headaches at settlement that cost both time and money.

The core of the problem is straightforward. When a property changes hands, is renovated, or is subdivided — activity that has accelerated sharply across Perth's middle ring suburbs since 2022 — the images tied to that address in multiple platforms do not automatically update. A three-bedroom brick-and-tile in Midland that was subdivided into two green-title lots in late 2024 may still display as a single property with an outdated photograph on Landgate records, the Landcorp heritage asset overlay, and multiple private aggregator sites simultaneously. Buyers, valuers, and insurers can be working from fundamentally different pictures of the same address.

This is not a niche inconvenience. Western Australia's property market has seen transaction volumes surge alongside the population growth driven by resources sector expansion and AUKUS-related defence contracting centred on HMAS Stirling at Garden Island. The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has previously reported that Perth's median house price climbed through the upper $700,000s during 2025, and with more money riding on each transaction, a discrepancy between what a database shows and what physically exists on a block in Balga or Bentley can translate into valuation disputes that delay settlement by weeks.

Where the Duplication Happens — and Who Gets Caught

The duplication problem tends to cluster in specific circumstances. Deceased estates in established suburbs like Victoria Park and Maylands, where properties have not been listed since the early 2000s, are particularly vulnerable — the only photographic record in aggregator systems may date from a listing scan taken before a major renovation or rear-lot subdivision. Similarly, strata title conversions in Fremantle's West End have left some addresses carrying images of buildings that were substantially altered during the heritage precinct rehabilitation works completed along High Street.

Landgate, the state government's land information authority, maintains the authoritative title record, but it does not control what private aggregators — including the major national listing portals — store and display. Homeowners who contact those platforms to request image corrections report turnaround times ranging from several days to more than a month, according to complaints logged with Consumer Protection WA. In the meantime, a bank valuer or insurance assessor working to a tight deadline may rely on whatever image surfaces first in a search.

Metronet is adding another layer of complexity. Corridor acquisitions and rezoning along the Morley-Ellenbrook Line, due for completion in 2026, have triggered dozens of partial-lot purchases and boundary amendments across suburbs including Malaga and Noranda. Each of those transactions creates a new opportunity for image records to fall out of sync with the physical reality of the land parcel.

What Residents Should Do Before Listing or Refinancing

The practical steps are manageable, but they require residents to act before a sale or refinance is underway rather than after. The first is to run the property address through Landgate's online portal — accessible via the state government's MyLandgate service — and compare the recorded lot dimensions and any attached imagery against what the address shows on the major private listing aggregators. Discrepancies should be flagged in writing to both Landgate and the relevant platform before a valuation is ordered.

Conveyancers at several Settlement Group offices across the metro area advise clients to commission a fresh set of professional photographs at least 60 days before any listing or refinancing application, specifically so there is a date-stamped visual record that can be submitted if an aggregator's database image is contested. The cost of a basic professional property shoot in Perth currently runs between $200 and $450 depending on the suburb and the number of images required — a fraction of the cost of a delayed settlement.

For residents in Metronet-affected corridors or those who have completed a subdivision or strata conversion since January 2023, the advice is more urgent. Checking the paper trail now, before a transaction is on the table, is the only reliable way to ensure that what the databases show matches what is actually standing on the block.