Property Potential and the Cost of Housing

On Thursday 18th February The Journal reported that Estate agents are using AI photos to ‘show potential’ and the ads regulator says that’s fine. The story reports how estate agency Auctionera had been criticised for posting AI enhanced images of a house for sale in Cork to both the Daft.ie and MyHome.ie property platforms.

Image - A real photo of the house (left) beside an AI-generated version (right) via The Journal.

“The first photo of the listing by estate agents Auctioneera, which was also posted on Daft.ie and MyHome.ie, shows the front of the house, except the garden has new steps, a wall, a manicured lawn and flower beds, all of which were created by artificial intelligence.”

Altered photos of the interior depict rooms with new furniture or different layouts. Most striking though is the garden:

“An image of the back garden turns the muddy ground and small patio into a landscaped lawn with flower beds and a polished outdoor seating area.”

The altered images were accompanied with captions at the bottom indicating ‘AI generated image to show property potential’. For context you can see the property listing on Daft.ie pictured below.

Image - AI enhanced property image via Daft.ie

Actual images are presented alongside the AI enhanced versions. However, the AI enhanced view is presented as the main ‘hero’ image for the property. The piece in The Journal gestures to codes of standards for advertising and marketing in Ireland which recommend that ads should not “exploit the credulity, inexperience or lack of knowledge” of consumers. In this case about 16/48 images for the property were AI enhanced versions, but each AI enhanced image is clearly labelled and accompanied by the actual image. As such the Advertising Standards Authority deem that:

“Where these considerations are met, it would appear that the practice of including AI-generated imagery is not likely to mislead”.

In large part this seems a non-story which hinges on prevalent negative sentiment regarding the general use of any AI. In fact use of this kind of visualisation and visioning has been common in architectural practice and planning for years…no AI required. Nonetheless, a followup story the next day indicated that Tánaiste Simon Harris would be speaking to the ministers for AI and housing regarding the issue. Given the documented response of the Standards Authority, Harris gave a rather unreflective response:

“It’s also a very bad practice. I mean, you can just show us what the actual house looks like. That is a much more decent way of engaging with people. So I’ll engage with both the Minister for AI and Minister for Housing on this”

Only a casual viewer would be deceived. Unless the actual images are removed it’s very unlikely that a serious house buyer would be misled.

I’d suggest instead that there are two components at work here. Firstly, justified concerns over unregulated developments are finding undirected expression through negative sentiment toward AI in general which is poorly defined and understood. Secondly, through its deployment in the context of housing, abstract negative sentiments about AI are linked to more material concerns for housing, filtered through the lens of cost. The original piece in The Jornal quoted Kieran McCarthy who presents RTÉ’s ‘Heat My Home’ TV show as follows:

“The gardens alone could be €30,000, (…) Anyone who puts together €420,000, they won’t have a whole lot left in the savings account … they’re hardly going to be turning around and spending another god knows what, so it’s a bit unrealistic.”

Image - A photo of the actual garden (left) beside an AI-generated version (right) via Daft.ie.

There’s certainly going to be an outhouse sized cost to realising the potential of the second image. Is this possibly what it really comes down to, a feeling of injustice about the cost and outcome of buying a property as a home in Ireland. What you want and hope for versus what you get and how much you paid for it.