PHOTO: Barry Plant
Mr Barry Plant, a Director of the Barry Plant Group, has spoken out about his frustration with how some news outlets are portraying the current real estate market downturn.
Celebrating 50 years in real estate this year, Mr Plant has seen a lot of property cycles but fears that this current property correction is being driven deeper by a media whose revenue is driven by clicks and views.
“The person on the street could be forgiven for thinking the current property market in Victoria is headed for Armageddon – if they base their knowledge on the sound bites and headlines that some of our media outlets are unfortunately using,” says Mr Plant.
“Headlines such as ‘Property market falls off a cliff’ are just irresponsible. Yes, if you do read the whole article there may be some qualifying data buried in it, but the danger is that people are not delving deeper for their information.”
Mr Plant believes that some media outlets need to exercise some social responsibility and understand that their actions affect all-important consumer confidence.
“This headline driven reporting makes buyers nervous and unwilling to buy. The lack of properties selling means that not only the real estate industry is depressed but there is effect to conveyancers, lawyers, landscapers, hardware stores, furniture stores and, of course, State Government revenues.”
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