Madam, – I could not disagree more with the Data Protection Commissioner’s assertion that generic information about price levels of “three-bedroom semi-detached houses” would assist in the provision of real-time, transparent and accurate market information (September 9th). The heterogeneous nature of property and the differences that arise from street to street, never mind between post codes, makes nonsense of this suggestion.
Why has Ireland chosen to adopt the position that the price paid for houses is private information, when this information is vital for the common good in the effective operation of the property market in both buoyant and bad times? Our closest neighbours, the British, are able to report the most marginal monthly movements in property prices via their National House Price Register, so that reporting is based on fact rather than sentiment and not surveys that lag the market by more than six months.
The information needed to provide such a register is already with various Government departments and merely requires the political will for its establishment. – Yours, etc,