Canberra Renters Say Duplicate Listing Photos Are Hiding the True State of Their Homes

A growing number of Canberra renters are reporting that the property photos used to advertise their homes bore little resemblance to the dwellings they moved into — and some say the same images have been reused across multiple listings, sometimes years apart, obscuring damage, wear, and structural changes that accumulated between tenancies.

The complaints are concentrated in the territory's fastest-growing corridors. Residents in Gungahlin and the outer Belconnen suburbs — areas where rental stock has expanded rapidly alongside population growth — say the practice has left them with limited legal recourse and significant out-of-pocket costs in the weeks after signing.

One Amaroo resident, who asked not to be named because her lease is still active, described arriving at a three-bedroom home on Mirrabei Drive to find water staining on the ceiling that was absent from every photograph in the listing. She had signed a 12-month lease at $620 per week after viewing only a virtual tour. The listing images, she later confirmed using a reverse-image search, had appeared in at least two prior listings for the same property — the earliest dated to 2021.

A Problem That Predates the Current Rental Crisis

The issue is not new, but tenant advocates say it has intensified as vacancy rates in the ACT tightened through 2024 and 2025, pushing prospective renters to commit faster and with less scrutiny. The ACT saw rental vacancy rates fall below one percent for extended periods during that stretch, according to data published by the Real Estate Institute of the ACT — a market condition that gave prospective tenants little bargaining power and even less time to interrogate listing materials before making decisions.

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which handles residential tenancy disputes, has seen a sustained volume of bond and condition-report matters in recent years, though the tribunal does not publish a specific category for image-misrepresentation complaints. Tenants' Union ACT, based in Civic, offers free advice to renters navigating disputes and has noted that mismatched listing photography frequently surfaces as a secondary issue in broader complaints about property condition at the start of a tenancy.

The problem is compounded by how property management software works. Images uploaded to platforms like realestate.com.au and Domain can persist in agency databases and be reattached to new listings without any verification process. There is no requirement under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 — the ACT's core tenancy legislation — for listing photographs to be taken within a specified period before advertising.

What Renters Are Doing About It

Some tenants are taking matters into their own hands before signing. Community threads on the Canberra-specific Facebook group Canberra Buy Swap Sell, which has more than 180,000 members, regularly feature posts from prospective renters asking others to cross-check listing images or share experiences with specific agencies and properties in suburbs like Macgregor, Casey, and Florey.

The ACT government's Access Canberra service handles complaints related to rental conduct, and the Directorate can refer matters involving misleading advertising to the ACT Fair Trading office. However, renters who have gone through that process describe it as slow relative to the pace of a standard lease cycle. By the time an inquiry is resolved, a tenant is typically months into an occupancy they cannot easily exit.

Tenant advocates recommend several practical steps: conduct a reverse-image search on every listing photo before signing anything; request a video walkthrough completed within the past 30 days and ask the agent to confirm the date on camera; and document every discrepancy between listing images and actual property condition on the move-in inspection report, including photographs with timestamps. That documentation becomes critical if a bond dispute reaches ACAT.

For renters already locked in, the Tenants' Union ACT at its office on Challis Street in Dickson provides free legal advice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and can assist with preparing evidence for tribunal applications. The ACT Rental Taskforce, established under the current territory government's housing reform agenda, is expected to deliver updated recommendations on advertising standards before the end of 2026.