A small flat white is expected to fetch north of $1, a real estate agent was told at his local café this morning.

The coffee – which eventually changed hands for $3.80 – went well above the quoted price, but was a reflection of market conditions, the café’s owner said.

“We were surprised by the strong interest in this coffee. It certainly surpassed our expectations,” the owner said.  The real estate agent said he was caught unawares by the price, and was not able to secure the coffee.

“I only came in here with $1.50 to spend – which is a good 20% above the upper end of what they were quoting, so I’m pretty gutted that I’ve walked out of here today without a flat white,” he said.

The café’s owner said he was unaware of sales of similar coffees in the area, which all reached between $3.50 and $4.00.

This story originally appeared on The Shovel

For the record Pennisi real estate don't condone the practice of under quoting Coffee or Real Estate.

On a more serious note we are fully supportive of the proposed legislation to help stamp out the disgraceful practice of under quoting. Under the new laws agents will be required to provide an accurate quoted price range for every property or faces fines of up to $30,000 and lose their commissions. 

The crackdown follows recent inspections of over 100 Melbourne estate agents and the prosecution of one for repeated underquoting offences. It is believed a further 10 estate agents are under investigation.

"Victoria is the underquoting capital of Australia, it's a cancer on the industry that must be fixed," said RealAs CEO Josh Rowe.

Under the proposed new rules, agents will be required to provide a 'fact sheet' for every property they sell that includes an estimated selling price, the prices of three recent comparable property sales, and the median house price for that suburb.

At Pennisi we will be implemented the proposed changes immediately.