Daft and the rental market

Sir, – Mark Paul’s article “Let’s not be too Daft about the accuracy of all the data on the rental market” (Caveat, Business, August 12th) exposes how almost the entire media - print, radio and TV in Ireland - has been entranced for nearly 15 years into accepting a report by one online media company and reporting PR-driven press release conclusions as statements of fact.

Mark Paul correctly points out that statements in the latest Daft report such as “Nationwide there were just 716 homes to rent on August 1st” and likewise “Rents rise nationally by 12.6 per cent” are misleading.

Contrary to general media and public perception, Daft.ie is not the only means of renting properties in Ireland and asking prices are not the same thing as rents achieved as concluded and widely reported.

These quarterly reports have only served to increase the profile of the website concerned. Its headline-grabbing conclusions have also been innocently used as evidence by most landlords and agents as justification for increasing existing rents even further than might otherwise be appropriate. Indeed, because of only a 12-week gap between reports and the blanket media coverage they are given, it could be argued we have in effect been living through an asking-price spiral that has been self-perpetuating because most, if not all owners going to the rental market between reports base their asking price on the conclusions of the last widely reported Daft report. These new asking prices go into the next Daft report and so the saga continues. – Yours, etc,

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NICK CRAWFORD,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.