A WHISTLE-BLOWING book on estate agents and how they ran their business during the boom is due to hit the bookstands in April, just as the market is getting ready for the all-important summer season.
Called Ireland’s House Party, the book, has been penned by Derek Brawn who spent a year or so as head of research with Hamilton Osborne King, before it was taken over by English estate agency Savills. Said to contain much sensitive information on marketing strategy – particularly in the area of new homes developments – the book reproduces a number of e-mail exchanges in which Brawn was encouraged to put a positive spin on market prospects, whereas in fact he felt that values were on the slide. These revelations will be considered dynamite in the business, though by the time the book comes out, Brawn’s own estimates of how far the property market had to fall will have been well overtaken. His 2006 estimate that house prices needed to drop by 20 per cent now seem like a best case scenario in a market that’s not yet hit bottom.
It’s being published by Gill Macmillan who will be hoping to emulate Penguin’s success with its book The Bankers, written by Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan of this parish.
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