Wrong forum What rent to charge for 2 bedroom apt Dublin Centre

My father has a 2 bed apt in D1 in Dorset street with parking

The rent since 2001 was as follows (it was always easy to find a tenant)

2001 - 1100 per month
2002 - 1200 per month
2003 - 1200 per month
2004 - 1200 per month
2005 - 1300 per month
2006 - 1250 per month
2007 - 1200 per month
2008 - 1200 per month
2009 - 1200 per month

I know it's a hard question to answer, but what would the correct rent be now, it's vacant

I'm thinking 1000 per month. does this sound about right ?
Thats a 23% drop since the peak in 2005 or a 16% drop since last year.

I can see on DAFT.ie what the asking rents are, but not sure the relationship between the asking and the attained rent, hence why I am asking the question here.

My father wants to pitch the rent at a sensible level, and not waste time looking for a figure which is too high.

You could go in at 1050 per month and give the first months rent at half price. That way you could catch a prospective tenant's attention and the extra 50 euro a month would cover the offer on first months rent

As far as I know, asking and attained rents are the same. I think it's sitting tenants who see rents in other properties dropping who want to negotiate rent reductions. (And if they can't they just move to a cheaper place, leaving their landlord to be forced to rent the place out at the reduced rent the original tenants wanted but to new, unproven tenants).

If you pitch your rent too high on Daft you just won't get any responses. I would advise against the "special offer" approach as it may (if not downright would) make prospective tenants suspicious that there is something wrong with the place, and they will pass on to the next listing.

Pitch the rent at what the other, similar properties on Daft would suggest, and make sure you post several good pictures of the (cleaned up) apartment - make especially sure the "front" picture looks good (i.e. not just a picture of a badly lit empty bedroom with a bed with an uncovered mattress on it)