CHRISTINE CAMPBELL ASKS MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS
TO MONITOR REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING
Christine Campbell, Member for Pascoe Vale, has asked Tony Robinson, Minister for Consumer Affairs, asking him to take action to monitor the advertising by real estate agencies, especially agencies operating in the Pascoe Vale electorate.
Speaking in Parliament on 4th February, Ms Campbell said a number of very prominent agencies in the electorate appeared to be breaching the law and guidelines accepted by both Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.
“As an aside, I pay tribute to Enzo Raimondo of REIV, who has worked to ensure that ethical practices are the norm rather than the exception in the Victorian real estate industry, particularly in ensuring that advertising in the industry adheres to the law”, Ms Campbell said.
“Guidelines exist to ensure that potential buyers are not misled into wasting money and valuable time on properties that are not going to be available at the price advertised and at a price in their price range. People who obtain architectural reports and engineering reports are finding they are wasting their money, because they believe what is in the real estate advertising in my two local papers, the Moreland Leader and the 'Domain' section of Community News”, Ms Campbell said.
“I want to highlight that there are always people who will do the right thing and there are businesses that will not, and our responsibility and the responsibility of the Consumer Affairs Department is to examine the major advertising journals of the real estate industry, the 'Domain' section of the Age and the real estate sections of the local papers. It is not hard to spot examples of inappropriate advertising”, Ms Campbell said.
“I will give a couple of quick examples. If you look at the January editions of the Leader newspapers in my electorate, you will find in the advertising part of the real estate section there are private sales listed with a dollar figure 'plus', which is inappropriate. In the section relating to auctions, where there is supposed to be a 10 per cent price range, this does not always occur, and you see figures that state, for example, 'in excess of' a particular nominated figure”, Ms Campbell said.
“There are a number of agencies that are doing the right thing, but in my view the advertising pages show that more are doing the wrong thing. The worst of it was brought to my attention the other day when one agent was advertising a property for sale 'in excess of' a particular figure, and another agent was advertising a property in the same street, directly opposite and with land of an identical size and virtually the same house, at a price with a $100,000 difference. That vendor said they wanted more than was advertised”, Ms Campbell said.