Property platform punch-up: Are home buyers and sellers being misled?

July 2, 2026 — 1:50pm

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House prices are falling, sellers are running and against this backdrop the real estate advertising portals, Domain and REA Group, are each claiming the other is guilty of misleading the public with unsubstantiated claims about their market share and advertising impact.

Home sellers can spend tens of thousands of dollars with these advertising portals, so the outcome of the just-lodged legal claims is significant to all property sellers and would-be buyers.

There’s long been a bitter rivalry between the two property portals that cover most of the listings in the Australian housing market. They have worn a path between their head offices to the Federal Court.

REA Group (majority owned by News Corp) sued Domain (previously majority owned by this masthead’s owner, Nine) in 2017 over advertising claims that Domain was the “#1 property app” and had “the most property listings in Sydney”. The judge ruled in a split........

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