What benefit to the Australian Bureau of Statistics have in keeping House prices inflated?
That article you posted relates to Agents lying about their campaigns, i dont debate this for one second and I wouldn't be suprised if this happened in boom time as well.
The ABS use existing home transfers based upon the contracted amount of the property, which cant be fudged by agents and relies on two counter parties signing off. In the most recent numbers, Brisbane was DOWN -3.6%, Perth -4.2% and Sydney -.7% on a year on year basis. I would hardly call this a cover up of a price reduction.
I acknowledge that Fairfax and News make a good deal of coin off property advertising be it in Weekend papers or RE.com.au, so even though they may be bias it doesn't change the fact that property indices are based on contracted amounts, not agents reports.
