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

Canberra renters are raising the alarm about a practice that has quietly spread through the ACT's already strained rental market: property listings that recycle old, mismatched or outright duplicate photographs, leaving prospective tenants turning up to inspections that bear no resemblance to what they saw online. The problem has surfaced repeatedly in community forums and local Facebook groups over recent months, with residents from Gungahlin to Garran comparing notes on agents and listings they say cannot be trusted.

The issue lands at a particularly raw moment. The ACT rental vacancy rate has been sitting well below two per cent for the better part of two years, according to data compiled by the Real Estate Institute of the ACT, and competition for affordable units close to light rail corridors along Northbourne Avenue and the planned Stage 2 extension toward Woden has become fierce. Public servants who relocated to Canberra after the federal election last year are now competing for stock that was already scarce. In that environment, any wasted inspection trip — across town, on a weekday afternoon, with annual leave burning — carries a real cost.

The community voices coming through are specific about the harm. Members of the Canberra Renters Network, a grassroots group that meets monthly at the Belconnen Community Centre on Benjamin Way, describe showing up to two-bedroom units in Casey and Amaroo only to discover the listing photos were pulled from a previous tenancy, sometimes years earlier, before renovation or — more often — before significant wear set in. One thread on the group's private Facebook page in June drew more than 80 responses within 48 hours, with participants tagging specific addresses in Dickson, Lyneham and the Gungahlin town centre where they said the photographs did not match the current condition of the property.

A Systemic Problem, Not Just Isolated Errors

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which handles residential tenancy disputes in the territory, does not currently maintain a specific category for complaints about misleading listing photographs. Tenants who feel deceived before signing a lease have limited formal remedies under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, unless they can demonstrate the misrepresentation influenced them to sign a contract to their detriment. That legal gap is something the Canberra Community Law centre, based on Coranderrk Street in the city, has flagged in its tenant advice materials as an area where the law has not kept pace with digital property platforms.

Property platforms including Domain and realestate.com.au do have policies requiring that listed images accurately represent the current state of a property, but enforcement relies on complaint-driven reporting rather than proactive auditing. A search of Domain listings for two-bedroom units in Belconnen conducted this week showed at least a dozen properties where the photography metadata embedded in listing images dated to 2023 or earlier, even though the listings were marked as available from August 2026. That does not automatically mean the images are inaccurate, but tenant advocates say it is a red flag worth scrutinising.

What Renters Are Doing About It

Community members are not waiting for regulators to act. The Canberra Renters Network has begun circulating a self-help checklist — shared through the Belconnen Community Centre notice board and digitally via the group's Facebook page — advising prospective tenants to request a video walkthrough dated within the previous 30 days before booking an inspection, to cross-reference listing photographs against Google Street View for external shots, and to formally request confirmation in writing from agents that images reflect the current condition of the property. That written confirmation, tenant advocates note, creates a paper trail that strengthens any later ACAT complaint.

The ACT's Office of Rental Bonds holds security bond data that can help tenants assess turnover rates at specific addresses — a high turnover at a given unit can itself be a warning sign. The office is accessible through Access Canberra on Challis Street in Dickson. Community members are also being encouraged to submit feedback directly to Consumer Affairs ACT if they believe a listing constitutes misleading conduct under Australian Consumer Law, which carries broader remedies than the Residential Tenancies Act alone. The next Canberra Renters Network meeting is scheduled for late July at the Belconnen Community Centre.