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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A buyer now meets a Queensland home several times before walking through the door. There is a walk-through tour on a phone, a 3D model that can be spun like a doll's house, a floor plan with room sizes, and a line of figures giving the land and the floor area. Each of them looks precise. Each is made by a different process, and each carries a different margin of error that the listing rarely spells out.
This guide explains how a virtual tour, a 3D model, a floor plan and a measured area are produced, what accuracy the equipment makers state for themselves, and what the law says about a digital representation that turns out to be wrong. The legal part rests on three things read for this guide: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's guidance on false or misleading claims, the Australian Consumer Law's rule on representations about land, and section 212 of Queensland's Property Occupations Act 2014 as explained by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.
Camera figures from Matterport's published camera comparison. Penalty from the REIQ's explanation of section 212 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), published 27 June 2023.
Four different things that look alike
The four items tend to arrive together, often from one visit by one operator, and a listing presents them as a single package. They are not the same kind of object, and the difference matters when one of them is wrong.
A virtual tour is a set of panoramic photographs joined so that a viewer can step from one position to the next. It shows what a camera saw. A 3D model adds depth: the device records how far away each surface is, and software builds a shape from those distances. A floor plan is a drawing, a simplified view from above with walls, doors and room labels. A measured area is a single number, the result of a calculation that somebody chose to make in a particular way.
Related readFree government property data in Queensland: what each map shows| Item | What it is made from | What it shows | Where error enters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual tour | Panoramic photographs taken at a series of positions | How the rooms looked on the day of capture | Lens distortion, date of capture, what was moved or left out of frame |
| 3D model | Depth readings combined with the photographs | The shape and relative size of the spaces | The depth sensor's tolerance and gaps where it could not see |
| Floor plan | A drawing, traced from a scan or from hand measurements | Layout, room names, often room dimensions | Simplification, rounding, the choice of where a wall line sits |
| Measured area | A calculation from the plan or from a title document | One number for land or for floor space | What is counted, the source of the figure and its date |
A general description for readers. Individual products and operators differ.
How a tour and a 3D model are captured
The capture itself is quick. An operator places a camera on a tripod, steps out of view, and the camera turns through a full circle. Matterport, one of the makers whose published specifications were read for this guide, calls each of these positions a sweep. Its comparison of two of its own cameras gives under 20 seconds a sweep for its Pro3 model and 24 to 40 seconds for its older Pro2.
Two sensing methods appear in that comparison. The Pro2 is described as a structured-light device with a range of up to 5 metres. The Pro3 is described as using lidar, which times pulses of laser light to work out distance, and the maker gives it a range of up to 100 metres. The short range of the first kind is one reason a large room, a garden or a long view from a balcony can look less convincing in a model than a bedroom does.
What happens next is done by software, not by the operator. The sweeps are aligned with each other, the depth readings are fused into a single shape, and the photographs are laid over it. The viewer then sees three outputs from one capture: the walk-through, the "doll's house" view of the whole building, and a top-down view that can be turned into a plan.
- CaptureA camera turns on a tripod at a series of positions, recording photographs and distances.
- ProcessingSoftware aligns the positions, builds the shape of the spaces and lays the photographs over it.
- PublicationThe tour, the model and a plan drawn from it are attached to the listing and shared.
Two things follow for a buyer. A tour is a record of one day, so furniture, garden growth, a neighbouring building site and the state of repair are all as they were at capture. And a model is only as complete as the positions the operator chose: a cupboard, a roof space or the underside of a house that was never scanned simply is not there.
Related readFrom agency software to the portal: how a property listing travelsProperty portals have put money behind this kind of content. REA Group's full-year results, lodged with the ASX on 6 August 2026, named iGUIDE and Simplicity as acquisitions included in its cost guidance for the 2027 financial year. Domain has promoted a package it calls Matterport Suite, and the performance claims it made for that package are among the matters in dispute between the two portals in the Federal Court, the Australian Associated Press reported on 2 July 2026.
What accuracy the makers state
The makers publish tolerances, and they are worth reading closely because they are stated in two different ways.
Matterport's comparison gives the Pro2 an accuracy of plus or minus 1 per cent. That is a proportion: the larger the distance measured, the larger the possible error. Over the 5 metre range the maker states for that camera, 1 per cent is 50 millimetres.
The same page gives the Pro3 an accuracy of plus or minus 20 millimetres at 10 metres. That is an absolute figure tied to a distance. Twenty millimetres in 10 metres is 0.2 per cent.
A small percentage on a length becomes a larger percentage on an area, because area multiplies two lengths. A worked example shows the size of the effect. Take a room that is truly 4.00 metres by 5.00 metres, an area of 20.00 square metres. If both lengths are read 1 per cent long, the room is recorded as 4.04 by 5.05 metres, or 20.40 square metres. That is 0.40 of a square metre too much, an overstatement of about 2 per cent. The figures are illustrative: they show how a tolerance compounds, not how any given listing was measured.
Related readRTA replaces its core systems as online forms pass 80 per centHow a floor plan is drawn
A floor plan can come from the scan or from a person with a measuring device and a sketch pad. Either way it is a drawing, and a drawing involves choices.
Matterport's comparison describes the plans its cameras support as "schematic floor plans". The word is doing honest work. A schematic shows arrangement: which room opens onto which, where the stairs sit, which way the doors swing. It straightens walls that are slightly out of square, gives every wall the same drawn thickness and leaves out skirtings, bulkheads and sloping ceilings.
Room dimensions on a plan are normally written as two numbers, such as 3.6 by 4.2. The plan seldom says whether those numbers are the longest and widest points, an average, or the distance between the wall faces at one place. In an L-shaped room the difference can be large. Built-in wardrobes are sometimes inside the dimension and sometimes outside it.
Orientation is another quiet source of error. A north point on a plan is placed by whoever drew it. If it is wrong by a quarter turn, a living room described as north-facing is not, and that is a representation about a characteristic of the property, not a drafting detail.
Measured areas and what gets counted
A listing can carry two quite different kinds of area figure, and they come from different places.
The land area belongs to the lot. It is a figure a seller's agent would ordinarily take from documents about the title, not from anything measured for the marketing. If it is wrong in a listing, the usual cause is transcription: a digit dropped, the area of a neighbouring lot, or an older figure that predates a change to the boundaries.
Related readRTA Web Services: how Queensland bonds are lodged and refunded onlineThe floor area belongs to the building, and here the method is everything. One figure may count only the space inside the walls. Another may run to the outside face of the external walls. A third may add the garage, the patio, a deck or a balcony under the main roof. The same house can honestly produce three figures that differ by tens of square metres, which is why a number without a description of what it includes tells a buyer little. The material read for this guide does not set out a single method that every Queensland listing must follow, so the description printed with the figure is the thing to look for.
The national rule on misleading conduct
The main legal rule is national and short. Section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, as the REIQ sets it out, prohibits conduct in trade or commerce that "is misleading or deceptive, or is likely to mislead or deceive". Selling and letting property through an agency is trade or commerce, and a tour, a model, a plan and an area figure are all conduct.
The ACCC's guidance for consumers, last updated in June 2026, puts the expectation in plain words: claims should be true, accurate and based on reasonable grounds, and a business must be able to prove any claim it advertises. Three points from that guidance and from the regulator's Advertising and selling guide of July 2021 bear directly on digital listing material.
Intention does not matter. The ACCC's wording is that it "makes no difference whether a business intends to mislead or not", and the guide adds that the law applies even where nobody has suffered loss. A plan that overstates a room because of an honest drafting slip is assessed the same way as one that was stretched on purpose.
Related readKeypads, fobs and key safes: Queensland's lock and entry rules applyThe test is the overall impression. The guide says the whole advertisement is considered, including fine print, contradictory statements and images that obscure or alter written statements. Pictures count as much as words. The ACCC's own example is a phone maker penalised $14 million in 2022 over advertisements showing its handsets used in pools and sea water, where the images carried the claim.
Silence can mislead. The ACCC says a failure to disclose information can be misleading where a business gives some information and leaves out important details. The guide's version is that more must be disclosed where other conduct has created a misleading impression, or where it is reasonable to expect the information to be given. A tour that walks every room except the one with the damaged ceiling raises that question.
The guide also separates fact from sales talk. It describes puffery as wildly exaggerated, fanciful or vague claims that no one could treat seriously, and says such claims are not misleading. "The best outlook on the coast" is puffery. "Internal area 148 square metres" is not: it is a statement of fact that can be checked.
False representations about land
Alongside the general rule, the Australian Consumer Law has a specific one about land. The ACCC's guide notes that there are specific rules against false or misleading claims about the sale of land. Section 30 lists the kinds of representation covered, and the open law textbook Svantesson on the Law of Obligations, published in 2022, sets them out and records that a pecuniary penalty may be imposed for a contravention.
Related readThe software inside a real estate agency, and what trust law asksSeveral of the listed kinds map neatly onto digital listing material. The table below pairs each with the sort of content that could carry it. The pairings are illustrations written for this guide, not decided cases.
| Kind of representation | Where it can appear in digital material |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship, approval or affiliation | A badge or logo on a plan or tour implying a body has endorsed or certified it |
| The nature of the interest in the land | A plan that draws a shared courtyard or car space as if it belonged to the lot |
| The price payable | Price text carried inside a tour or brochure that differs from the listing |
| The location of the land | A map pin, an aerial outline or a north point placed wrongly |
| The characteristics of the land | Land area, floor area, room dimensions, the shape of the lot in a model |
| The use to which the land may be put | A plan labelling a space as a bedroom or a second dwelling |
| The existence or availability of facilities | A model or plan showing a pool, a lift or parking that is not there or not available |
Categories of section 30(1) of the Australian Consumer Law as set out in Svantesson on the Law of Obligations (2022). Examples are illustrative.
The characteristics line is the one most digital material touches. An area, a dimension and an orientation are all characteristics, and all are stated as fact.
Statements about the future have their own treatment. The ACCC's guide says a business that makes a claim about future matters must have reasonable grounds at the time, and that it is for the business to show it had them. Its real estate example is an agent who tells buyers a golf course will be built nearby within a year while knowing no such plan exists. The digital equivalent is a rendered model of an extension, a subdivision or a view that depends on something not yet approved or built.
Queensland's own rule for agents
Queensland adds a rule aimed at the people who hold property licences. Section 212 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 prohibits licensees and real estate salespeople from making false or misleading representations about the sale, exchange or letting of property, according to the REIQ's explanation of the provision published on 27 June 2023. The maximum penalty it gives is 540 penalty units.
Two subsections matter for digital material. Under section 212(4), as the REIQ describes it, a representation made without reasonable grounds is treated as misleading. Under section 212(5), it is for the agent to establish that there were reasonable grounds. Put together, an agent who publishes a floor area cannot rest on the fact that the figure came from someone else. The question becomes what the agent did to be satisfied it was right.
The REIQ's practical points follow from that. Images should be current and should reflect the actual condition of the property. Descriptions of location, amenities and development potential must be accurate. Agents are told to encourage prospective buyers and tenants to make their own enquiries and to include an appropriately worded disclaimer in marketing material.
The same article treats digital alteration that materially changes how a property is perceived, such as removing an eyesore from the background or changing a paint colour, as misleading conduct. That subject, together with virtually staged and AI-edited photographs, is covered in a separate guide in this magazine's AI section.
The Queensland Government also publishes a property advertising page within its best-practice material for the property industry.
The responsibility does not stop with the person who held the camera. The ACCC's guide says a business that uses an agent will generally be responsible for the agent's conduct and should supervise it. On publishers, it says a media operator that is only the vehicle for someone else's message may not be liable, but one that adopts or endorses the message may be. An agency that puts its name on a plan drawn by a contractor has adopted it.
What a disclaimer can and cannot do
Almost every floor plan carries a line saying it is not to scale, that dimensions are approximate and that buyers should rely on their own enquiries. The REIQ recommends a disclaimer, and it is sensible practice. It is not a cure.
The ACCC's consumer guidance says information in fine print and qualifications must not conflict with the overall message of an advertisement. The Advertising and selling guide goes further: the main selling point may make such a strong impression that no disclaimer can dispel it. It adds that the customer is not required to search exhaustively for qualifications, and that the advertiser must clearly direct attention to the most significant terms. It lists the ways a qualification fails, among them text that is too small or placed in an obscure location.
"Not to scale" explains a drawing, it does not correct a number
A disclaimer can tell a reader that a plan is a sketch and that walls are simplified. On the ACCC's guidance it cannot rescue a stated figure that is wrong, because fine print must not conflict with the main message and a strong headline claim may be impossible to dispel.
The distinction is between tolerance and contradiction. "Dimensions are approximate" fairly covers a bedroom drawn at 3.6 metres that measures 3.55. It does not obviously cover a floor area overstated by a fifth, or a plan showing a fourth bedroom in a home that has three. The first is the ordinary looseness of a schematic. The second is a different message from the truth.
When a representation turns out to be wrong
What follows from an error depends on who relied on it, how far it was from the truth and what was lost. This is general information, not advice on any one transaction.
The ACCC's guide notes that a consumer may get compensation where loss or damage was suffered and was reasonably foreseeable. In its case studies, courts ordered penalties and corrective advertising, and some businesses gave court-enforceable undertakings to stop the conduct. Those outcomes came from regulator action in other industries, and the guide contains no decided case about a floor plan or a virtual tour.
A buyer who finds a discrepancy before a contract is unconditional is in a different position from one who finds it after settlement. Before, the practical step is to raise it with the agent, ask where the figure came from and have it checked, since the price can still reflect the answer. After, the question becomes a legal one about reliance and loss, which is a matter for the buyer's solicitor.
It helps to know what the national regulator does not do. The ACCC says it does not resolve individual disputes about misleading claims and does not give legal advice. It takes reports, which it uses to guide its education, compliance and enforcement work. A report can matter for the market without settling one buyer's problem. In Queensland, section 212 gives the state its own offence for licensees, separate from anything the ACCC does.
A scan measures a building to within a tolerance. A listing states a number as fact. The law looks at the second, not the first.
Reading the digital parts of a listing
The reader's task is to match each item to the question it can answer.
- The tour answers "what did it look like". Ask when it was captured. A tour from a previous sale campaign shows a previous state of repair.
- The model answers "how do the spaces relate". Look for what is missing: rooms with no scan position, outdoor areas beyond the sensor's range.
- The plan answers "how is it laid out". Check what the room dimensions measure, whether wardrobes are inside them, and who placed the north point.
- The area answers "how much", but only with its definition. Ask what the floor figure includes and where the land figure came from. A figure that cannot be traced to a document or a measurement is a claim without visible grounds.
For anything that decides the purchase, such as whether a boat fits beside the house or a granny flat fits behind it, the reliable sources are the title documents, a surveyor or a tape measure. The digital material shows where to look. It was not built to carry the weight of a contract.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
