Councils and Planners Sound Alarm Over Duplicate Property Images Undermining Central Coast's Housing Records

Central Coast Council's property database contains thousands of duplicate listing images — some properties appearing under two or three separate entries — and the problem is now skewing housing availability data used by planners, lenders and prospective buyers across the region. Council's digital services team confirmed the issue is under active review as of late June 2026, with a remediation program expected to be formally scoped by September.

The timing is lousy. The Central Coast is in the middle of a critical period for housing policy. Council only exited financial administration in 2021 after a near-collapse that cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars, and it has spent the years since trying to rebuild the credibility of its records and reporting systems. Housing affordability is the region's most politically sensitive issue — median house prices in Gosford sat at approximately $870,000 in the March 2026 quarter, according to CoreLogic data, pushing buyers who can't afford Sydney deeper into a market that is itself becoming unaffordable.

What Officials and Experts Are Saying

Council's director of environment and planning has acknowledged internally that duplicate imagery in the property information system creates real-world consequences, not just administrative headaches. When the same dwelling appears twice in a data extract, automated tools used by state agencies — including the NSW Department of Planning's Housing Monitor — can miscount available stock. One planning analyst familiar with the Central Coast data sets, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the duplication problem had been flagged as far back as 2023 but fell behind other priorities during the post-administration recovery period.

The NSW Property and Development NSW office, which coordinates with councils on housing supply targets under the government's Transport Oriented Development program, said it was aware that some council data pipelines had image-integrity issues but declined to specify which local government areas were affected. Central Coast's obligations under the TOD program — which targets higher-density development within 1,200 metres of Gosford and Wyong train stations — depend on accurate property records to identify development-ready sites.

Real estate professionals operating along Mann Street in Gosford and around the Terrigal-Wamberal corridor say the practical effects reach buyers and sellers. Duplicate image entries can cause properties to appear in multiple search results on platforms that draw from council records, creating confusion about whether a property is still available or has already sold. One Erina-based buyer's agent, speaking in general terms, said she had noticed inconsistencies in council property data that required manual cross-checking against Land Registry Services records before advising clients — adding hours to the due diligence process.

The Fix, and What Comes Next

Central Coast Council is understood to be piloting an automated image-deduplication tool on a subset of roughly 4,000 residential records in the Gosford LGA as a proof-of-concept before wider rollout. The pilot began in mid-June. Council's customer and digital services team is working alongside the geographic information systems unit based at the Wyong administration offices on Hely Street. Full remediation of the council's estimated 140,000-plus property records is not expected before mid-2027 at the earliest.

State government pressure is a factor. The Minns government has made housing supply a central plank of its second-term pitch, and inaccurate local data undermines the evidence base for decisions about where to zone land and approve infrastructure spending. The Central Coast fast rail corridor proposal — which would slash the Gosford-to-Sydney commute toward 45 minutes — also depends on reliable development data to make the investment case to Infrastructure NSW.

For residents and buyers, the practical advice from council's property information team is straightforward: always cross-reference any council-sourced property data with the NSW Land Registry Services portal, which carries the authoritative title record. Council's online mapping tool, available through its website, is also being updated progressively as duplicates are cleared. Anyone who suspects a duplicate entry affecting their property can lodge a data correction request through the council's customer service centre on Central Coast Highway in West Gosford.