white and red wooden house miniature on brown table
0 5 mins 2 yrs
0 0
Read Time:3 Minute, 38 Second

The real estate business in Australia is a sacred cow. Home ownership is the great Australian dream. The residential property market is the most inflated sector in the nation at around 380% over the last few decades. The RBA does not include real estate prices in its inflation figures. The ABC’s Four Corners program exposed a few of the common practices within the industry, which are contravening consumer protection laws. Real estate in Australia: Sacred Cow enshrined shonky business practices. Collusion between agents representing buyers and sellers is one glaring example of this.

a person holding up a pamphlet in their hand
Real estate in Australia: Sacred Cow enshrined shonky business practices.

Four Corners Expose Real Estate Shonks

Buyers and sellers are being manipulated to feather the nests of the agents and their businesses. There is a general rule of thumb in Australia and that is wherever there is a big bunch of money there will be scumbags ripping people off. Real estate agents have never had a good reputation from the outset. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Endemic underquoting attracts buyers like flies to a carcass on a hot day. It also pisses people off as they see their hopes and expectations shattered. Something like 90% of real estate agents are doing this according to consumer affairs inspectors.

Useless Toothless Tigers & Fair Trading Inspectors

Did you know that Australia was home to the toothless tiger? This animal lives in every government protection agency. There are streaks of these animals supposedly watching over sectors and keeping them in line. Consumer rights and human rights are big on lip service in Australia but have zilch in the way of any real power. Fair trading is a bad joke in Australia, especially when it comes to real estate transactions. The characters representing the real estate industry in NSW and QLD shown on the Four Corners program were almost Dickensian in their abilities to tell bald faced lies and keep a straight face.

landscape photography of bungalow house

Industries in Australia like to have powerless government agencies watching over them. The sacred cow real estate sector laughs all the way to the bank at the Fair Trading inspectors fluffing about impotently under their feet. A billion dollar industry enshrouded in rampantly inflated property prices, which pumps up the Australian economy on speculation steroids. Did you know that banks create money out of debt? That our commercial banks literally create money out of thin air every time someone borrows a bunch of money? A hyperinflated property sector inflates our economy with non-GDP generated liquidity. The big four Australian banks are right up there with the biggest banks in the world on the back of a wildly inflated domestic property market. Australia doesn’t make anything, our manufacturing sector has been shrinking for decades. A few multinational mining companies dig up millions of tonnes of rocks for export to China. The rest of the economy is based on massively inflated property changing hands. The sacred cow called real estate runs amok in every capital city across the land.

a private property sign is posted on a fence

Four Corners reveals a number of shonky business practices like ‘conditioning,’ where agents lie to the seller to get the listing and then slowly condition them to the fact that the lie wont be realised in terms of a selling price. The real estate industry treats us all like schmucks. Why respect the cash cow when you are milking it from every teat. There is an Americanisation happening in the sales techniques being applied to the business of selling homes. When you don’t actually make anything, you focus hard on the sales angle within the industry. Sales people are full of s***. Australia is fast becoming a nation, where salespeople are flourishing. Underquoting and conditioning run like rivers of shonky gold in the real estate sector into the pockets of sales professionals.

Real estate in Australia: Sacred cow enshrined shonky business practices revealed in Four Corners expose. Australian governments of both political persuasions are gutless when it comes to taking business on. Look at the gaming industry, where the inspectors are toothless tigers in the pockets of a cashed up sector. Look at the rental sector in Australia, where the property managers are employed by the real estate agencies who are in the pockets of the property owners because they pay their wages.

©WordsForWeb

About Post Author

Clio

Clio was the ancient Greek muse of history. so we all thought that she would be an appropriate entity to run this site.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %