Seychelles Real Estate: Beware of Retouched Photos

Published on October 5, 2025 and written by Cyril Jarnias

Real Estate in Seychelles: Beware of Retouched Images

In the enchanting setting of the Seychelles islands, where every corner seems to promise a slice of paradise, real estate attracts numerous buyers and investors seeking a peaceful haven.

However, real estate agents face strong temptation to enhance reality through photo retouching, transforming already picturesque views into truly idyllic postcards.

These deceptive practices can lead to major disappointments during in-person visits, where the reality may be far from the perfect images used to entice buyers.

Navigating the Seychelles real estate market therefore requires a discerning eye and heightened vigilance to avoid falling into the trap of these enhanced appearances.

Avoiding Real Estate Scams in Seychelles

Practical Tips to Avoid Real Estate Scams in Seychelles

• Verifying the authenticity of agencies and owners:
  • Search the agency or owner’s name online, check reviews, forums, and social media.
  • Ask to see a license or official registration when dealing with an agency.
  • Inspect the consistency of provided information (actual property address, company existence).

• In-person visits:
  • Never agree to send money or personal documents before visiting the property.
  • During the visit, thoroughly inspect the home and speak with neighbors to confirm the property is genuinely available for sale or rent.
  • Always prefer a physical meeting with your contact to assess their seriousness.

Common Techniques Used in Scams

Technique Used	Explanation
Retouched photographs	Published images are digitally enhanced; verify via Google Maps.
Overly attractive listings	Abnormally low prices compared to the local market.
Required upfront payment	Demand for deposit before any visit or signing.
Suspicious communication	Poorly written emails, numerous errors, urgent or pressing tone.
False identity	Contacts refusing video calls/physical meetings; inconsistencies

Administrative Measures to Secure the Transaction

• Engage a local notary who will verify the legality of the property title and ensure there are no hidden mortgages or disputes on the property.
• Consult a lawyer specializing in Seychelles real estate to review all your contracts before signing.
• Never send your identification documents (passport, bank statements) without certainty about the recipient’s identity.

Essential Actions:

• Always seek advice from independent third parties if you have any doubts
• Perform all financial transactions through secure wire transfers after validation by the notary

Real Case:

“While searching for a seaside villa in Seychelles through a popular international website, I found a very attractive listing. After insisting on a physical visit—which the ‘agency’ kept postponing—I finally discovered through Google Maps that the photos actually came from a neighboring hotel! I then reported this fake listing to the website.”

“An acquaintance almost lost several thousand euros after sending personal documents following an urgent email request; they were saved at the last minute thanks to advice received on a French-speaking forum.”

Quick List of Warning Signs:

• Urgent solicitation for immediate payment
• Systematic refusal to arrange a physical meeting
• Inconsistencies between description and actual condition during visits
• Excessive use of professional photos often taken from other listings

Frame each administrative step with licensed local professionals (notaries/lawyers), avoid any direct payment to the seller without secure legal intermediaries.

⭑⭑⭑ Adopt these habits to secure your tropical real estate project ⭑⭑⭑

Deciphering Listings and Verifying Authenticity

In the Seychelles real estate sector, photo retouching has become common practice to highlight properties for sale. However, these modifications can sometimes mislead potential buyers by presenting an idealized image that doesn’t always match reality.

Common Retouching Techniques Used in Real Estate:

• Exposure and contrast adjustment: allows lightening or darkening certain areas to make a space appear brighter and more welcoming.
• Color correction: enhances or modifies hues so walls appear whiter or gardens seem greener.
• Removal of undesirable elements: erases unwanted objects (trash cans, electrical cables) or even masks structural flaws in the photo.
• Artificial addition of natural light (HDR): overlays multiple exposures to create an impression of very bright space even if it’s not the case in reality.
• Straightening and perspective correction: corrects converging lines from wide-angle lenses to create the impression that rooms are perfectly proportioned.
• Virtual furniture insertion (“digital home staging”): digitally adds modern furniture to make an empty interior much more attractive.

Summary Table

Technique Used	Desired Effect	Deception Risk
Exposure/contrast adjustment	Bright room	Overestimated space
Color correction	Warm ambiance	Different actual colors
Removal of undesirable elements	Visual cleanliness	Hidden flaws
HDR	Uniform brightness	False impression
Perspective correction	Perfect proportions	Difficult to judge actual size
Digital home staging	Modern decoration	Emptiness not perceived before visit

These techniques often alter the actual perception of the property. A living room may appear spacious when it’s narrow, a garden may look lush when it’s poorly maintained, etc.

Practical Tips for Deciphering Listings:

• Examine carefully:
  • Look for exaggeratedly wide perspectives (abnormally deep rooms).
  • Be attentive to inconsistent shadows indicating digitally added lighting.
  • Observe if certain objects appear “blurry” or poorly integrated into the image (clues of digital insertion).
  • Be wary when all photos show perfect brightness regardless of the apparent time of day.

Strategies for Verifying Authenticity:

• Request a live virtual tour via video conference to observe the property without possible editing.
• Use free tools like Google Images or Tineye to detect if certain photos have been reused elsewhere online in different contexts.
• Check with recognized local agencies that guarantee their seriousness and often offer their own controlled photographic service supervised by their experts.

To Protect Against Excessive Manipulation

• Systematically seek the opinion of a local professional familiar with the Seychelles market; their expertise will notably allow quick detection of any glaring inconsistency between visual description and reality.

The Importance of a Realistic Virtual Tour

Virtual tours offer potential buyers a much more immersive and accurate experience than that allowed by a simple photo gallery. Unlike static images, which only show a limited angle and are often retouched to artificially enhance spaces, virtual tours allow exploring the property in 360 degrees, room by room, as if actually being there. This interactivity provides access to all corners of the home and even offers the possibility to observe the view from windows or balconies—a detail difficult to appreciate in traditional photos.

Risks Associated with Retouched Photos:

• Sometimes create a misleading illusion about room size or brightness.
• Mask certain flaws through filters or advantageous angles.
• Can generate buyer disappointment during physical visits.

Benefits of a Realistic Virtual Tour:

• Authentic representation of volumes and layout.
• Faithful visualization of the property’s potential (brightness, circulation between spaces).
• Allow buyers to concretely envision themselves in their future home by imagining their daily life there.

Comparative Table

Classic Photo Gallery	Realistic Virtual Tour
Limited and static view	Interactive immersive experience
Risk of visual illusion	Authentic perception
Difficult to envision	Facilitated projection
Subjective selection	Complete exploration

Thanks to this innovative approach, it’s possible to avoid many disappointments related to discrepancies between what promotional images promise and the reality discovered during physical visits. This also reduces the number of unnecessary visits: only genuinely interested buyers will visit after virtually validating that the property truly matches their expectations. This time savings benefits both the seller (less bothered by unqualified curious visitors) and the buyer (who optimizes their real estate search).

In Seychelles, where the real estate market is undergoing rapid transformation under the effect of recent immersive technologies, these tools are already revolutionizing how people discover homes. Local agencies now offer these interactive experiences to attract both local and international buyers: this not only promotes increased transparency but also contributes to building a healthier relationship between sellers and buyers by strongly limiting the risk of disappointments related to unrealistic expectations induced by overly embellished photographs.

Virtual tours thus become a major asset for enhancing property value while establishing essential trust in any modern real estate transaction.