Real estate industry a target of new laws
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AGENTS will have to stop quoting expected house prices before auctions under tough new laws to protect buyers, a south-west auctioneer fears.
Home owners would face fines of up to $220,000 under the radical Australian Consumer Law - designed to stamp out under-quoting and dummy bidding.
Real estate agents would be hit harder, with fines of up to $1.1 million.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel said the tough penalties would curb dishonest behaviour in the real estate industry.
"If someone was engaged in deceptive conduct in the past, the worst they got was a rap over the knuckles," he said.
"(The new law) will cover under-quoting by real estate agents, dummy bidding, the airbrushing of photos. It's a substantial improvement on where we've been for the last 30 years."
Cobden-based real estate agent David Falk described the law as "over-regulation".
