Pranksters react to Sydney house prices
Sydneysiders have voiced their concern with current housing prices. Photo: Facebook
Would-be Sydney home buyers have vented their frustration at the current state of housing prices by defacing a number of auction boards with fake sold stickers.
Real estate signs across Sydney were decorated with duplicate red stickers last week, reading, “Sold!!! F*** yeah! Mo $$$ *******!”
The images appeared on social media on Thursday and gathered support from hundreds of people for their forthright take on skyrocketing house prices.
However the prank – which first appeared on the Republic of Newtown Facebook page – failed to amuse Sydney real estate agents, who had their boards vandalised in the process.
“This is a prank, someone defaced our signboard and the red sticker has now been removed,” Ray White Erskineville wrote on Facebook.
What sparked it
In March, houses in Sydney reached a record $1,151,565 median price, real estate website Domain reported.
According to its data, Sydney house prices have grown 13.1 per cent since this time last year, locking many first home buyers out.
Only four Sydney suburbs have a median house price under $500,000 – all more than 45km west of the CBD, Domain stated.
Five years ago, there were more than 150 suburbs out of Sydney’s 467 suburbs under the half-a-million mark. Now only Blacktown’s Willmot, Tregear, Lethbridge Park and Blackett remain.
‘Please remove it!’
The real estate agent reportedly pleaded with the Facebook page to remove the posts, as a number of similar signs emerged across the state.
“The agent has contacted us pleading for us to remove this post, but it’s too funny! Clearly the agent doesn’t have a Newtown sense of humour!” wrote the Newtown Facebook moderator.
And a number of Facebook users showed their support for the jokesters’ peaceful protest, stating their discontent with Sydney housing prices and Ray White’s reaction.
“Yeah, because pleading with the internet to stop disseminating things like this has worked so well in the past,” one wrote.
“Love it. A new house in Darley St just went for $2.3m. It’s the end of the world,” another said.
“So agents get a bit annoyed when they are earning heaps for effectively f all, it’s humour truth,” one reply read.
“That should be your official sold sign, if it was I might even consider jumping into the ridiculous property market just for the lolz,” one user said.