News
Repeated and duplicated images in real estate listings are muddying price comparisons across Gosford and beyond, and calls are growing for tighter industry standards.
Property hunters scrolling through listings on the Central Coast are increasingly encountering the same home advertised twice — sometimes at different prices, sometimes by competing agents — and the problem is driving fresh warnings from consumer advocates and local real estate professionals about the integrity of the regional market.
The issue has sharpened this winter as housing demand on the Coast remains elevated, with Sydney commuters pushing into suburbs like Woy Woy, Niagara Park and West Gosford in search of properties below the $800,000 median that analysts have flagged for the broader Central Coast local government area. When duplicate image sets circulate across platforms like realestate.com.au and Domain simultaneously, buyers can mistake a single property for multiple available homes, distorting their sense of supply and pushing competition — and offers — higher than warranted.
The timing is not incidental. Central Coast Council, which emerged from state administration in late 2022 after a period of financial crisis, has been working to stabilise the local economy and attract residential investment. Gosford CBD renewal projects along Mann Street and around the Gosford Waterfront precinct have generated fresh listing activity as developers move staged-release apartments to market. Advocates say duplicated or recycled promotional imagery — sometimes lifted from earlier construction phases and reused in current campaigns — is compounding confusion for first-home buyers already navigating complex off-the-plan contracts.
The Real Estate Institute of NSW has existing guidelines requiring agents to use accurate and current visual representations in all listings, but enforcement is complaint-driven rather than systematic. Consumer advocacy groups have argued for some time that platforms themselves bear responsibility for deduplication checks before listings go live. Neither the institute nor the major platforms responded to requests for comment before deadline.
Local buyers' agent services operating out of Gosford have noted the problem anecdotally in newsletters and client briefings this year, pointing to cases where the same Terrigal property photographs appeared in listings dated weeks apart at price points differing by more than $30,000. For a region where the gap between a buyer's borrowing capacity and the asking price is already tight, that kind of discrepancy carries real financial consequences.
Property data firm CoreLogic listed the Central Coast as among the faster-moving regional markets in its most recent quarterly review, with median days on market sitting below 30 for entry-level houses in several suburbs. Fast turnover is precisely the environment where cutting corners on listing preparation — recycling old photos, reposting expired campaigns — becomes tempting for agents managing high volumes.
Fair Trading NSW, which oversees licensing for agents under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, has the power to investigate misleading listing practices. Consumer advocates recommend buyers who encounter suspected duplicates lodge a formal complaint through the Fair Trading online portal rather than raising it solely with the agency involved. Screenshots with URL timestamps are considered the strongest form of supporting evidence.
The Central Coast Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service, based on the Pacific Highway in Gosford, has fielded inquiries from renters facing a parallel problem in the rental market, where duplicated listings for units near Erina Fair and along The Entrance Road have led prospective tenants to attend inspections for properties already leased.
For buyers and renters, the practical advice from consumer groups is consistent: cross-reference any listing by running the address through multiple platforms before making contact, check that the listed agent's name matches the agency signboard visible in street-view images, and request confirmation in writing that a property is currently available before paying any holding deposit. The Central Coast Council's planning portal can also confirm whether a property address holds active development or strata approvals, offering a secondary data point that image duplication cannot easily obscure.
A review of listing standards for regional NSW markets is understood to be on the agenda at the next REINSW industry forum, scheduled for August in Sydney. Whether the Central Coast's specific conditions feature in that discussion will depend partly on how loudly local agents and consumer groups push the case before then.
Spread the word
About this article
Published by The Daily Central Coast