One wish for the new year is thatĀ Donald Trump not doofus the world into a nuclear winter. Another is for Sydney's real estate agents to remove their faces from our streets.
I spent more time than usual in the eastern suburbs over Christmas. The water was lovely. But at some point I looked up and began noticing all the Gavins, Claytons and Traceys smiling down, their faces affixed to seemingly every other wall or shopping centre car park. Once you've noticed these faces, it can be hard to stop.
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I don't want to look at you, Shaun. Why is your Certificate IV in Property Services a licence to plant your head in front of every dog-walker in the inner west? Why would your teeth be of any interest to us? Though they are, I suppose, impressively white.
Decent real estate agents no doubt make a world of difference in situations in which we rely on them. As do good and honest baggage-handlers. But the glamorisation of the real estate profession seems awry on a host of levels.
![Real estate agent ad at Erskineville train station. Once you've noticed these faces, it can be hard to stop.](/web/20170104202734im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/k/r/j/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtlno6.png/1483497206742.jpg)
It misconceives the concept of agency. By definition, an agent represents someone else. Agents act on behalf of principals. The agent is like the receptionist at the doctor's in this respect. The receptionist confirms the appointment; the doctor does the meaningful stuff. Yet somehow the appointment-bookers of the property world are the ones with their heads on billboards across the city.
The agents haven't built the house. They haven't saved for a decade to compile the deposit. They haven't forgone family holidays to make the mortgage. They haven't tended to the garden or ripped out the old kitchen. They haven't even lent the money. They are agents for those who have. And yet they're the ones on the billboards.
If we have to look at faces of people associated with property, would it not be more meaningful to look at the architect who designed the block? Why not the teachers at the school that is attracting families to the area? Why not the landscape gardeners who work at the adjacent park? Why not the face of the industrious garbo who will take away your child's shit-smeared nappies?
Obviously, garbos and teachers are not running businesses with a need to market themselves and the means to do so. (And please, real estate industry, it would be great if you would continue to support the FairfaxĀ mothership). But the marketing glamour that's been sprinkled over people who stand around with clipboards is surely a bizarre byproduct of the property boom.
![A community campaign of passive aggression might be appropriate against this billboard at Dulwich Hill.](/web/20170104202734im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/k/r/j/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtlno6.png/1483497206742.jpg)
Because these people are not selling freedom or a good time. There are no doubt some in Sydney who achieve financial security and quality of life through real estate transactions. But for most of us, a home is not just a home. It is also a mortgage or a rental drain. It is a commitment to decades' worth of repayments. It is the consequent denial of other things you might do with your life. It is the crystallisation of compromise and, possibly, the cruelling of other hopes.
You don't have to squint hard to see Sydney's property market as an organ of oppression and the real estate industry as its jailers. And yet we have celebrity agents? Forget intergenerational theft: we've stolen Stockholm's syndrome.
So what is to be done? One response might be a community campaign of passive aggression. Something like: "I'm sorry, Terry, I would transact through you but my mother thinks your photos look shady." Or: "Is that you on the billboard at the train station, Belinda? You must make so much money from renters like me."
But aĀ political response would get sharper results. The Real Estate Agent (Taste in Advertising) Act 2017Ā might even help restore faith in politics. It could include measures such as restricting the size of agents' heads on billboards. Or it might require agencies usingĀ full-body images to make contributions to local homeless shelters. There are lots of possibilities. Your move, Parliament.
Jacob Saulwick is city editor.
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