Canberra Renters and Buyers Say Fake and Duplicate Listing Photos Are Costing Them Time, Money and Trust

House hunters in the ACT are growing increasingly frustrated with duplicate and misleading property images appearing on rental and sales listings, describing a pattern where photographs recycled from previous tenancies or pulled from entirely different properties send them across Canberra for inspections that bear no resemblance to what was advertised online.

The issue has sharpened in recent months as Canberra's rental vacancy rate remains stubbornly tight and competition for affordable stock intensifies — particularly for public servants priced out of inner-suburb ownership who are searching in growth corridors like Gungahlin and Belconnen. When a listing vanishes or turns out to carry images from a renovated version of the same unit that was photographed five years ago, those wasted Saturday mornings carry real costs.

What Community Members Are Describing

Residents who spoke to The Daily Canberra described variations of the same problem. A renter who travelled from her share house in Dickson to inspect a two-bedroom apartment on Hibberson Street in Gungahlin Town Centre found the kitchen in the photographs — gleaming stone benchtops, new appliances — had been replaced with the original laminate fitout after a previous tenant's renovations were reversed by the landlord. She had taken the afternoon off work for the inspection. She did not apply.

A buyer searching for entry-level townhouses in the Belconnen area described finding an active listing on a major portal that carried photographs clearly belonging to a neighbouring property on the same estate — identified by a distinctive fence visible in the background of two images. When he flagged this to the agent, the photos were removed but the listing stayed live for another nine days without replacement images. He lost his place in the inspection queue while waiting for accurate material to be posted.

Others have noted a subtler version of the problem: listings that use wide-angle lens photography to make sub-50-square-metre studio apartments near the Braddon precinct appear substantially larger than they measure on the accompanying floor plan. One Canberra renter described measuring the living room of a Lonsdale Street studio against the photographed furniture and estimating the actual floor space at roughly two-thirds of what the advertisement implied.

Why This Matters Right Now

The ACT's residential rental market recorded a vacancy rate of around one percent through the first half of 2026, according to figures published by the Real Estate Institute of the ACT. At that level of competition, renters who spend three or four weekends inspecting properties before securing one are not an anomaly — they are the norm. Duplicate or inaccurate images effectively tax that search process further.

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, based on London Circuit in the city, provides a pathway for tenants to raise disputes under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, but community legal services including the Canberra Community Law centre on Mort Street in Braddon note that photographic misrepresentation at the listing stage is rarely pursued because it is difficult to quantify as a loss once a lease is signed.

Consumer law at the federal level, administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, does prohibit misleading conduct in trade or commerce, which can include property advertising. However, enforcement actions specific to individual residential listings are rare, and few ACT renters are aware they can lodge complaints with Access Canberra regarding real estate agent conduct under the Agents Act 2003.

Industry groups representing real estate agents in the territory have previously promoted voluntary photography standards, though compliance is uneven and there is no mandatory audit mechanism for images attached to listings once a property is re-listed after a tenancy ends.

Community members say the most practical immediate step is to request written confirmation from an agent that photographs reflect the current condition of the property before booking an inspection — and to ask specifically whether the images were taken within the past 12 months. Saving and comparing image metadata where it is available can also help identify recycled photographs. The ACT Government's Access Canberra service on Challis Street in Dickson can receive complaints about licensed real estate agents, and community legal services can advise on whether a specific case meets the threshold for a formal dispute.