Real estate agents fined

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PHOTO: Underquoting will simply not be tolerated

One state is cracking down on underquoting after instances where properties sold for more than twice the amount of their original price guide.

NSW real estate agents and companies have been fined a whopping $250,000 for underquoting during property transactions.

And they’re staring down the barrel of more penalties in what is a major crackdown for the industry.

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Several days ago, NSW Minister for Fair Trading Eleni Petinos announced that she was taking a long hard look into property price guides and that underquoting was not acceptable.

“Understating the expected price of a property for sale by providing false estimated selling prices of the property completely wastes the time and money of potential homebuyers,” Ms Petinos said.

“Underquoting will simply not be tolerated. We will continue to investigate and penalise where false prices are provided to consumers.”

A special NSW Fair Trading task-force has issued 114 infringement notices over the last year totalling a quarter of a million dollars. The bulk of that — $200,000 worth — occurred in the past nine months.

And in a first for the state, harsh restrictions will be placed on “serial underquoters”.

It comes off the back of an unprecedented year for the property market, where homes surged by 25 per cent in 12 months in what hasn’t been since the mid-1980s housing boom.