[tomcam]

  However, the tone here is a little patronising if another bidder was just trying to get enough to cover the rent.

Didn't seem the slightest patronizing to me. Brendan just seemed delighted that he could help out. I love that.

More important, any bidder in any circumstance can be outbid by someone else and lose rent money in the process, right? To dictate any other outcome would require a depth of knowledge about the market and its bidders that no one party could possibly acquire reliably.