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Are we heading for a property crash?  Morgan Kellysays we can expect prices to halve in real terms over the next few years while  Austin Hughesdisagrees, saying we are seeing a healthy, short-term correction in property prices.

Yes Morgan Kelly:As the Bertie Bubble of 2000 to 2006 fades into the distance, the question is no longer whether the Irish property market will have a soft or hard landing, but what kind of hard landing it will have. Will prices fall gradually over a decade, or rapidly over two or three years? And as the building industry sinks, will it drag the banks under as well? Property bubbles are nothing unusual: sudden affluence invariably leads to a collective lapse of rationality where people start to believe the utterances of estate agents, developers and other spivs. House prices boom for a while and then, as common sense gradually filters back, fall back to their previous level.