Canberra Renters Say Duplicate Listing Photos Are Costing Them Time, Money and Peace of Mind

Canberra renters are losing hours — and in some cases hundreds of dollars — after turning up to inspect properties only to find the rooms look nothing like the photos advertised online. The culprit, many say, is the widespread recycling of old or duplicate listing images on platforms like Domain and realestate.com.au, a practice that community members say has become routine in the capital's increasingly pressured rental market.

The timing matters. Canberra's rental vacancy rate has hovered near historic lows for the better part of two years, squeezing prospective tenants — including thousands of public servants on flat Commonwealth pay scales — into a frantic, high-stakes search for housing. In that environment, a listing with inaccurate photographs does not just waste an afternoon. It can mean missing out on a property entirely while pursuing a ghost.

Stories from the Suburb Level

Community members from Gungahlin Town Centre to Belconnen's Westfield precinct have raised the issue at recent ACT Tenants Union drop-in sessions, which run out of a shopfront on Northbourne Avenue in Dickson. Attendees described inspecting flats in suburbs including Giralang, Dunlop and Casey only to find carpets, kitchens and room dimensions that bore no resemblance to the advertised images. In several cases, community members said they later discovered the photos had been carried over from a previous tenancy cycle — sometimes two or three years old — and reflected a property that had since been repainted, recarpeted, or had an entire room converted.

One pattern raised repeatedly at those sessions involved units in newer Gungahlin estates where developers and property managers have reused display-suite photography for individual apartments that look markedly different once fitted out and lived in. Community members at the Dickson sessions described the experience as a form of bait-and-switch, even when no deliberate deception was intended.

The ACT Tenants Union, which operates under the broader legal-aid network in the territory, has been fielding a higher-than-usual volume of inquiries on the issue since at least the start of 2026. The organisation has previously noted that misleading property advertising sits in a grey zone under both the ACT Fair Trading Act and Commonwealth consumer law — hard to prosecute unless financial loss can be directly demonstrated.

What the Rules Actually Say

Under the Australian Consumer Law, which applies nationally, representations about goods and services — including rental properties — must not be misleading or deceptive. The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, based on London Circuit in Civic, has jurisdiction to hear disputes between tenants and landlords or agents. But pursuing a complaint through ACAT costs time, and the threshold for proving that a set of recycled photos constitutes a misleading representation is not straightforward.

The ACT government's Access Canberra division, which handles consumer protection complaints in the territory, received more than 4,200 consumer complaints in the 2024–25 financial year across all categories, according to publicly available agency reporting. How many of those touched on property advertising specifically is not broken down in public data.

A stroll through listings on Domain for Belconnen or Tuggeranong on any given Saturday morning will surface dozens of properties where the listing date is recent but image metadata — visible through third-party browser tools — points to photos taken several years prior. That is not illegal on its face. But community members say it is corroding trust in a market where renters already have very little leverage.

For tenants navigating this, the ACT Tenants Union recommends requesting confirmation in writing from agents that listed images reflect the current condition of the property before booking an inspection. Renters can also lodge a complaint with Access Canberra on 13 22 81 if they believe a listing was materially misleading. Community legal centres at ANU and the University of Canberra both operate free advice clinics for tenants who believe they have grounds for a formal dispute — the ANU clinic runs on Tuesday afternoons during semester, and UC's clinic operates out of its Bruce campus on Wednesdays.