Canberra Renters Say Landlords Are Using the Same Property Photos for Different Listings, and It's Costing Them

A Canberra renter booked a viewing for a two-bedroom unit on Hibberson Street in Gungahlin last month based on bright, recently renovated photos in the listing. When she arrived, the floors were scuffed vinyl, the kitchen splashback was cracked, and the courtyard shown in four of the images belonged to a different property entirely. She is not alone.

Across Canberra's tight rental market, tenants and housing advocates are raising concerns about the use of duplicate, outdated, or outright mismatched images in residential property listings, a problem that has sharpened as vacancy rates stay stubbornly low and renters feel pressure to commit quickly or miss out. With the ACT's median weekly rent for a two-bedroom dwelling sitting above $550 as of mid-2026, according to figures from the ACT Real Estate Institute's most recent quarterly update, the stakes of making the wrong call on a property are high.

The Pattern Canberra Tenants Are Describing

The Belconnen Community Service, which operates a tenancy support program out of offices near the Westfield Belconnen complex on Benjamin Way, says the volume of image-related complaints it has been fielding informally has grown noticeably over the past twelve months. Workers at the service have been directing affected renters toward the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, known as ACAT, as a potential avenue for dispute resolution, though the process can be lengthy and is rarely suited to someone who has already signed a lease and moved in.

The Canberra Community Law centre on Ainslie Avenue has similarly fielded queries from renters who say they signed leases partly on the basis of photographs that turned out to depict either a renovated version of the property from several years earlier or, in at least some cases reported to the centre, a completely different unit in the same complex. None of those individuals, the centre notes, found it straightforward to back out without financial cost once the problem became clear.

ACT tenancy law requires that properties be advertised honestly, and the ACT's Consumer Protection Agency under Access Canberra has the power to investigate misleading conduct under Australian Consumer Law as it applies in the Territory. But enforcement against individual real estate listings for image accuracy is rare, and most renters described feeling they had little practical recourse once they had paid a bond.

Why It Matters More Now

The timing is not coincidental. The ACT's residential vacancy rate has hovered near one percent for much of 2025 and 2026, a figure consistent with data published by the Real Estate Institute of Australia, leaving renters with little bargaining power and even less time to scrutinise a listing carefully before a property is taken. Public servants relocating to Canberra for Australian Public Service roles, a steady flow given the city's employer base, often search for properties remotely and rely almost entirely on listing photographs to make initial decisions.

Advocates working in the Gungahlin Town Centre precinct and the older Tuggeranong suburbs have pointed out that the problem disproportionately hits renters who cannot easily attend multiple in-person inspections, including shift workers, single parents, and people with disabilities. The University of Canberra's Public Policy Institute has not yet published formal research on the issue, but staff there have noted publicly that digital listing fraud and misrepresentation are under-studied components of housing stress in mid-sized Australian cities.

For renters navigating the market right now, advocates at Canberra Community Law suggest requesting the listing agent confirm in writing, via email, the date the photographs were taken and whether they represent the current condition of the property. Saving screenshots of every listing image before an inspection creates a paper trail if a dispute arises later. Anyone who believes they have been misled can lodge a complaint with Access Canberra online or call 13 22 81. ACAT applications for tenancy disputes currently carry a filing fee of $91 for individuals, a figure confirmed on the tribunal's public fee schedule. The process is imperfect. But for now, it is what exists.