Reviews of official statistics for UK housing have noted that developments have not kept pace with real‐world change, particularly the rapid growth of private renting. This paper examines the potential value of big data in this context. We report on the construction of a dataset from the on‐line adverts of one national lettings agency, describing the content of the dataset and efforts to validate it against external sources. The paper specifically examines what these data might add to our understanding of changing volumes and rents in the private rented sector. Fluctuations in market share across advertising platforms make assessment of volume problematic, while rental prices appear more robust through comparison with other reference information. Focussing on one urban area, we illustrate how the dataset can shed new light on local changes. Lastly, we discuss the issues involved in making more routine use of this kind of data.

中文翻译：

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利用新的数据形式来研究私人租赁部门：租赁清单数据库的优势和局限性

对英国住房官方统计数据的评论指出，事态发展并未跟上现实变化的步伐，尤其是私人租金的快速增长。本文研究了在这种情况下大数据的潜在价值。我们报告了一个国家租赁机构的在线广告中数据集的构建情况，描述了数据集的内容以及针对外部来源对其进行验证的努力。本文专门研究了这些数据可能会增加我们对私人租赁部门的数量和租金变化的理解。跨广告平台的市场份额波动使对数量的评估成为问题，而通过与其他参考信息进行比较，租赁价格显得更为稳健。着眼于一个城市区域，我们说明了数据集如何为局部变化提供新的思路。最后，