Simpiwe Piliso - sensationalist about the rental market.

In an article in the Sunay Times (p5, July 27 2008) the reporter used a series of emotive words and phrases to describe the behaviour of property owners in the rental market:

The following words were used: " - but they are sqeezing tenants to cover their bonds", " as landlords demand exorbitant rates" "only nine years ago" - my God, nine years ago one could buy a tin of jam for sixpence...

Simpiwe, also makes the error many times in his article about high "asking" prices(or on offer or on the market). Any first year economics student will tell him and any agent using similar terms, is that it is not the price asked that matters, but the price at which the transaction takes place.

He also makes it sound like a crime if one manages to cover ones bond with the rental as if that is the only cost variable the owner has to contend with.

I would have expected more facts and comparable figures in an article of this nature.

Yes, the rental market seems to be robust - but in a stuation of choice an exorbitant price is the same as affordable if the deal is struck and not a price if no deal is made.