'My mum's house nearly sold twice': Central Coast residents speak out on duplicate listing crisis

Homeowners and renters across the Central Coast are raising alarms about a growing problem on major real estate platforms: duplicate property listings, sometimes carrying different prices or descriptions, that are confusing buyers, derailing sales and, in some cases, exposing personal information to strangers who book inspections for properties that aren't actually available.

The issue has sharpened in recent weeks as Sydney's record-breaking winter heat and a volatile NSW property market push more people toward the Coast in search of affordable housing. With Gosford's median house price sitting below that of Sydney's inner ring, the region has become a pressure valve — and property listings here attract intense competition. That competition creates fertile ground for listing errors and outright duplication to cause serious harm.

From Woy Woy to West Gosford, the frustration is real

Residents contacted The Daily Central Coast after our initial callout last month. A Woy Woy vendor described discovering their family home listed simultaneously on two separate portals with a $40,000 price gap between them — a discrepancy, they said, that led a prospective buyer to withdraw, assuming something was legally wrong with the property. A West Gosford renter recounted booking an inspection through a third-party aggregator site for a two-bedroom unit on Racecourse Road, only to arrive and find the property had been leased three weeks earlier and the listing had simply never been removed.

Another resident, from Kariong, said duplicate images of their property — including interior shots of bedrooms — had been scraped and reposted on an unfamiliar site without their agent's knowledge. They only discovered it when a friend sent them a screenshot. No quotes are attributed here; these accounts were shared directly with this reporter via written submission and phone, and the residents asked not to be named.

Central Coast Council's planning portal and NSW Fair Trading both field complaints relating to misleading property advertising, but neither body has a dedicated mechanism specifically for duplicate digital image complaints. NSW Fair Trading's general advice to consumers is to report misleading listings under the Australian Consumer Law, though the process can be slow and the takedown of images from third-party aggregators is rarely swift.

A problem with real dollar consequences

The Real Estate Institute of NSW flagged misleading online listings as a compliance concern in its 2025 annual report, noting that the proliferation of aggregator sites has made it harder for agents to control where their listing images end up once uploaded to a major portal. Under NSW regulations introduced in 2023, agents are required to ensure all published listings are accurate and current, but enforcement relies largely on consumer complaints rather than proactive auditing.

On the Central Coast, where the rental vacancy rate has hovered below two percent for much of the past two years according to publicly available SQM Research data, a duplicate or ghost listing can mean a desperate family wastes a Saturday driving to Gosford or Tuggerah for an inspection that goes nowhere. Petrol, lost wages, childcare — the costs add up fast for people already choosing between rent and groceries.

Community legal centres, including the Central Coast Community Legal Centre based in Gosford, can assist residents who believe they've suffered financial loss as a result of misleading advertising, though their capacity is limited and wait times for advice appointments have stretched to several weeks.

For vendors, the practical first step is to request written confirmation from your agent of exactly which platforms your listing appears on, and to set a calendar reminder to check those platforms every fortnight. For renters, cross-referencing a listing against the agent's own website before booking an inspection takes two minutes and can save an entire afternoon. NSW Fair Trading's online complaint form accepts screenshots as supporting evidence — keep them dated. Anyone who believes their property images have been scraped without consent can submit a removal request directly to the platform under the Online Safety Act, with the eSafety Commissioner's office providing written guidance on that process at esafety.gov.au.