When markets thrive, honesty is easy; it is in the lean seasons that character is tested. Brisbane's auction clearance rate has fallen from 51 percent to 22 percent in a single year, and with that collapse comes a familiar human temptation — to manufacture the appearance of demand where little genuinely exists. Buyer's agent Glenn Price observes that underquoting, phantom bidders, and AI-altered photographs are the instruments of a market under pressure, tools that have always existed but surface most visibly when desperation outpaces integrity.
Brisbane's slumping auctions spark warnings of 'dirty tactics' in real estate
Confident agents don't need ghost bidders. Desperate ones do.
Mark
So when you say the clearance rate dropped from 51 to 22 percent, what does that actually mean for someone trying to buy or sell?
Mimi
It means the market shifted from a seller's advantage to a buyer's one, almost overnight. Last year at this time, half the properties that went to auction sold. Now it's one in five. That's a massive swing in just twelve months.
Luke
But we should note—is that 22 percent figure just for that one week, or is it a trend? The article only gives us one week's data.
Mimi
Fair point. It's the week ending August 29. We don't know if this is a one-off dip or the new normal. But even if it's just one week, it's dramatic enough that Price is flagging it as a warning sign.
Mark
And the "dirty tactics"—how common are these actually? Is Price saying every agent does this, or just some?
Mimi
He's pretty clear: most agents he works with maintain integrity. But when markets weaken, the temptation rises. He's not saying it's widespread, just that it happens more often when desperation sets in.
Luke
The underquoting thing—that's technically legal, right? It's just listing low to draw interest. Where's the line between smart marketing and deception?
Mimi
That's the tension. In Queensland, agents can't give a price guide, so buyers have no official anchor. Listing well below what you expect to sell for exploits that gap. It's not illegal, but it's designed to mislead.
Mark
What about the dummy bidding? That sounds like it should be against the law.
Luke
It probably is, depending on how it's done. But proving it happened is another matter. You'd need to track who actually placed the bid.
Mimi
Exactly. That's why Price says buyers need to keep their eyes open. The system relies on transparency that doesn't always exist.
Mark
So what's the takeaway for someone actually buying a house in Brisbane right now?
Mimi
Don't assume the photos are real. Don't assume the competing bids are real. Ask questions. Bring someone who knows the market. The weaker it gets, the more you need to be skeptical.
O Pulso
- Brisbane's auction market has effectively halved its success rate in twelve months, with only 24 of 108 properties selling in the final week of August — a number that signals something deeper than a slow weekend.
- The pressure of unsold properties is pushing some agents toward a familiar arsenal: prices quoted below reality, competing offers conjured from thin air, and phantom phone bidders who appear precisely when momentum needs rescuing.
- AI-enhanced photography has added a modern layer to old deceptions, allowing homes to be presented as something buyers will not recognise when they arrive at the open door — a digital bait-and-switch that technology has made disturbingly easy.
- Queensland law already prohibits price guides for auction properties, yet buyer's agent Glenn Price says underquoting persists across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria regardless, suggesting regulation alone cannot hold the line.
- Price draws a careful distinction: most agents, even in difficult conditions, maintain their professional integrity — but the ratio of those willing to cut corners tends to shift when clearance rates crater and sellers grow desperate.
When markets thrive, honesty is easy; it is in the lean seasons that character is tested. Brisbane's auction clearance rate has fallen from 51 percent to 22 percent in a single year, and with that collapse comes a familiar human temptation — to manufacture the appearance of demand where little genuinely exists. Buyer's agent Glenn Price observes that underquoting, phantom bidders, and AI-altered photographs are the instruments of a market under pressure, tools that have always existed but surface most visibly when desperation outpaces integrity.
Brisbane's property market delivered a sobering result in the final week of August: of 108 properties sent to auction, only 24 sold, producing a clearance rate of 22 percent. A year earlier, the same measure stood at 51 percent. The drop is sharp enough to change behaviour.
Glenn Price, a buyer's agent who works inside these transactions daily, sees the weakness as a pressure valve for unethical conduct. When properties sit unsold, he said, some agents reach for tools designed to manufacture urgency rather than reflect it. Underquoting — listing a property well below its expected sale price — floods open houses with buyers who believe they can afford the home, building artificial competition that carries the auction past any figure they had budgeted. Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria all have rules intended to curb this, yet Price says it persists across all three states.
Dummy bidding adds another layer. Price described the pattern with the weariness of someone who has watched it often: a mystery phone bidder materialises precisely when the price needs a push, impossible to see, hear, or verify. Confident agents in strong markets, he noted, have no need for such theatre.
Technology has expanded the toolkit. AI-enhanced property photographs can present a home as something buyers will not recognise on arrival — what Price called a Tinder profile for a house. These tactics tend to cluster in weak markets, because strong ones make them unnecessary. When demand is genuine, the market does the work.
Price was deliberate in not condemning the whole profession. Most agents, he said, are simply trying to do right by their sellers under difficult conditions. But he acknowledged that every industry has those willing to cut corners — and the question Brisbane's market now raises is whether that number grows as the pressure does.
Brisbane's property market hit a wall in the final week of August. Of 108 properties sent to auction in the seven days ending Saturday, August 29, only 24 sold. That's a clearance rate of 22 percent—a collapse from the 51 percent achieved in the same week a year earlier. The shift is stark enough to worry people who watch how real estate actually works.
Glenn Price, a buyer's agent who navigates these transactions regularly, sees the weakness as a warning sign. When markets tighten and properties sit unsold, he said, agents often abandon straightforward selling and reach for tactics that blur the line between persuasion and deception. The toolkit is familiar to anyone who has watched real estate long enough: underquoting, fabricated competing offers, phantom bidders placed by phone, dummy bids designed to artificially pump up momentum. "When properties are harder to sell, you tend to see more of it," Price said.
Underquoting sits at the top of the list—what Price called probably the oldest trick in the book. An agent lists a property well below what they actually expect it to fetch. Buyers who think the place is within reach flood through the door. Competition builds. The auctioneer's gavel falls at a price nobody predicted at the open house. The mechanism is simple: create scarcity of interest where none naturally exists, and let the crowd do the rest. In Queensland, agents and auctioneers are legally barred from providing a price guide or estimate for residential properties going to auction. The state government's reasoning is that agents "cannot know how high the bidding will go." Similar rules exist in New South Wales and Victoria. Yet Price said the practice persists anyway, across all three states.
Dummy bidding—the phantom buyer on the phone—represents another layer of manipulation. Price described it with a sharpness born of observation: "The agent's on the phone to a mystery buyer nobody can see, hear or verify, yet somehow they're always there when the price needs another push." He has watched enough questionable phone bidding at auctions to know the pattern. Confident agents, he suggested, don't need ghost bidders. Desperate ones do.
Technology has opened a new frontier for deception. Artificial intelligence can now enhance property photographs in ways that reshape how a home appears to potential buyers. Price likened it to catfishing on a dating app—"a Tinder profile for a house." The buyer arrives expecting one thing and finds another. These tactics cluster together in weak markets. When auctions are clearing at 51 percent and phones ring constantly, agents have no need for any of it. The market itself does the work. But when clearance rates crater to 22 percent, desperation can override restraint.
Price was careful not to paint the entire profession with one brush. Most agents he works with operate with integrity, he said, even when conditions turn difficult. "Most are just trying to do a good job for their sellers and get a deal done." But like any industry, he acknowledged, there are always a few willing to cut corners. The question Brisbane's market now poses is whether a few becomes more when the pressure mounts.
Citações Notáveis
When properties are harder to sell, you tend to see more of it— Glenn Price, buyer's agent
Most are just trying to do a good job for their sellers and get a deal done. Like any industry, though, there are always a few bad apples.— Glenn Price
Quer a matéria completa?
Leia o original em Nine.com.au ↗
Economy & Finance