Canberra Renters Say Duplicate Listing Images Are Costing Them Viewings — and Sometimes Homes

Rental applicants in Canberra are losing out on properties they never properly saw, because the photographs listed on major real estate platforms don't match the actual unit being advertised. The problem — duplicate or misplaced images carried over from previous listings — has become a recurring complaint among renters navigating the ACT's housing market in the first half of 2026.

The issue matters now because the ACT rental vacancy rate has stayed stubbornly low through winter, with properties in suburbs like Gungahlin and Amaroo regularly drawing more than a dozen applications within 48 hours of listing. For public servants on moderate incomes, many of them based around the Northbourne Avenue corridor or stationed near the Australian Public Service Commission's offices in Barton, a wasted inspection trip or a misinformed application can mean missing a property entirely.

Wrong Photos, Real Consequences

Community members in Belconnen's Kippax Fair precinct and in the newer apartment blocks near the Gungahlin Town Centre light rail stop have described inspecting properties that look nothing like what was advertised online. In several cases, residents say they prepared applications based on photographs showing a renovated kitchen or a north-facing balcony, only to find a different floor layout — or in at least one instance recounted through an ACT Community Services Facebook group, a different building altogether.

The pattern seems most acute on platforms that allow property managers to reuse photo libraries across multiple listings within the same development. A two-bedroom unit on Flemington Road in Gungahlin, for example, can share a stock set of images with every other two-bedroom in the same complex, regardless of which floor, aspect or fit-out the specific unit actually has. That matters when some units face the Molonglo Valley and others face a car park.

The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which handles residential tenancy disputes at its premises on London Circuit in the city, does not publicly track complaints specifically about misleading listing photographs as a discrete category. The ACT's Residential Tenancies Act 1997 does contain provisions about misleading conduct in tenancy agreements, but enforcement typically kicks in after a lease is signed — by which point the applicant has already committed.

The ACT Rental Taskforce, established under the Housing and Homelessness Action Plan that the ACT Government released in 2024, has focused primarily on rent increases, bond practices and minimum standards. Listing image accuracy sits in a gap between consumer law administered federally and tenancy law administered by the Territory.

What Renters Are Doing About It

Some applicants have started demanding video walkthroughs from property managers before submitting applications, a practice that has become more common since the pandemic but is still not standard. Others have turned to community-run resources: the Canberra Renters Facebook group, which has grown to more than 14,000 members, regularly features posts asking whether anyone has inspected a specific listing and can describe what they actually saw inside.

The Real Estate Institute of the ACT has a code of conduct for member agencies that covers advertising standards, but compliance is self-regulated. A one-bedroom apartment in Braddon was listed on a major portal in June 2026 at $480 per week; community members who inspected it noted the images used were from a previous tenancy and showed carpet that had since been removed and replaced with vinyl planking — a material difference for anyone with allergies who had specifically filtered their search.

For renters dealing with this issue right now, housing advocates suggest three practical steps: request a property condition report or floor plan before applying, photograph the actual unit during the inspection and compare it systematically with the listing, and lodge a complaint with Access Canberra if a property is let on the basis of materially false advertising. The ACT Government's Access Canberra service centre on Callam Street in Woden is the relevant contact point for consumer protection concerns in the Territory. Whether image accuracy becomes a formal part of the ACT's evolving rental reform agenda may depend partly on how loudly the community keeps raising it.