My day job is keeping me busy this week. I reached home after 8pm Melbourne Australia time. That’s around 2 hour after European market open. I don’t rush to trade in this kinda condition. I will continue studying the market during my free time, however, I don’t think I have a chance to day trade just yet.

I am always interested in following the property market development here, Australia. One of the latest decorations along the streets of Melbourne suburbs are the House Auction sign boards. Yes, ridiculous. Basically, you can see auctions held every weekend. People are purchasing property desperately. For investment, for speculation, and for the real need.

Here is the news I found this morning.

ADVERTISED prices for houses at auction continue to be an extremely poor guide to what buyers actually end up paying, amid claims that consumers are being duped by real estate agents.

A survey of 378 auction results by The Age found that over the past two weekends, the difference between the advertised and final sale price was, on average, 20.7%, despite laws protecting consumers from underquoting and misleading conduct. The latest survey follows six weeks of surveys by The Age in April and May, which found similar results. Then, the average difference was 21.2%.

Agents can be prosecuted for underquoting through the Fair Trading Act, which prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct. There are also specific three-year-old underquoting laws that require price estimates to be based on what “a willing but not anxious buyer” would pay. The laws forbid agents from advertising properties for less than their own estimates.

Consumer Affairs Victoria last week released new guidelines designed to spell out what agents can or cannot do. Executive director David Cousins said agents had been put “on notice” on how the regulator would enforce the law. But that initiative has been muddied by the REIV, which released its own guidelines six months ago and took the extraordinary step of telling agents to follow their own guidelines rather than those of the regulators.

Uhm..What can be done by the new government, Mr. Rudd? Let’s see. I guess, it is the strong market demand, the desperate home buyers (and dumb investors) creates the naughty animals, real estate agents.