Australia’s real estate market is «haunting» with fake news, with some news outlets making unsubstantiated claims about the market and others offering misleading and inaccurate information, according to an analysis by The Australian Financial Report.
The report, which analysed over 100,000 real estate news stories from August to October, found a significant rise in «fake news» on social media.
While some media outlets were guilty of «bias» and «misleading», it was the real-estate industry’s «over-reliance on fake news» that was responsible for «widespread bias» in the market, according the report.
«The media’s obsession with ‘fake’ news is becoming a big problem,» said Richard Tice, head of real estate at the Institute of Public Affairs, a Sydney-based think tank.
«It’s creating a climate of misinformation that’s creating this false sense of confidence that’s driving people to buy property and make money off it.»
The report found that «fake» news had been widely shared on social networking sites and «replaced legitimate news stories with sensationalised and inaccurate stories that have been widely disseminated across multiple media platforms».
«It has created an environment of false information, with many people believing their favourite news source is the source of their latest news,» Mr Tice said.
«There’s a lot of misinformation in the real property market.»
Mr Tices report found fake news in more than 50 per cent of the stories analysed, with «fake real estate» being used as a term «almost as frequently as news about real estate».
In addition, «fake land», «fake houses» and even «fake restaurants» were «a common theme» in real estate stories.
Fake stories in the industry «is very dangerous because it creates a climate where people are just willing to do whatever they want,» Mr Davenport said.
«You can make money if you buy something and it looks fake, and the fact that it’s real does not necessarily mean it’s legitimate.»
And so it’s quite dangerous when you get a story that’s just made up.
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I think the real market is in a free fall,» Mr Sohn said.
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