Suddenly Nine’s newspapers are watchdogs of dodgy real estate behaviour. What a coincidence
Over the years Dr Mumbo has often found himself wondering about why one of the highest impact areas of the economy, that of the real estate sector, gets such relatively gentle treatment from our journalistic watchdogs.
Why would the likes of Nine (majority owner of Domain) and News Corp (majority owner of REA) seem a tad reticent when it comes to annoying the big real estate companies?
The SMH suddenly goes hard on agents
That all changed over the weekend, with Nine’s news mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age publishing a multi-part investigation into underquoting in the real estate industry.
The Age suddenly develops a deep interest in dubious agent behaviour
That’s the issue where potential buyers are used as fodder to create competitive tension by being given an unrealistically low guide price so they pay to have their surveys done and turn up on auction day, despite the owner never planning on accepting the price they were told.
Over the weekend, the newspapers revealed to readers that they’ve been working on the report for the last 18 months. And when did they finally publish? Five days after owner Nine agreed to sell Domain, meaning the company no longer has a dog in the fight. Just a coincidence of timing, Dr Mumbo is sure.
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