Gannon banks AIB branchesHats off to Gerry Gannon whose emerged as the sole buyer of no less than 12 bank branches of AIB in the Dublin area

. He bagged the portfolio for around €100 million, a modest sum for one of the wealthiest and most astute developers and land dealers in the business. Though heavily involved in the recent Ryder Cup event, through his 50 per cent stake in the K Club, Gerry found time to do the sums on the bank properties and look at the buildings, the best of which are on Dame Street and O'Connell Street.

Even if the banks eventually phase out their branch operations, these buildings are in the right place for alternative businesses. Meanwhile the bold Gerry has had a runaway success in Dundrum with several apartment and office blocks and he is also busy building on some of the best sites in Malahide.

While he must be a happy man to have grabbed the bank branches, there were many disappointed bidders who are hellbent on buying their local branch. They were never to know that AIB favoured a single buyer from the start, preferring to deal with one landlord rather than 12. Bank of Ireland has just taken a different approach to selling much of its portfolio of branches.

It was happy to sell 36 of its branches in various lots and to individual buyers. In most cases the buyers need to have cash in hand because the yields in most cases are likely to be no higher than 3 per cent - just the kind of miserly return you'd expect from a bank. The buyers are thought to have included most of the usual suspects: builders, retailers, syndicates and the odd lucky solicitor. Not to worry if you didn't get one in the first round. The two banks are getting ready to offload some more to free up capital for its banking business.

Smurfit Paper Mill site turns over new leaf

It's been a busy week elsewhere for Mr Gannon - as well as his AIB bank haul, he has got planning permission from Dublin City Council for a €100 million luxury homes scheme on the site of the former Smurfit Paper Mills at Clonskeagh in Dublin 6.

This will allow him build over 120 apartments and mews houses on a 2.3 acre site overlooking the Dodder, which is accessed off the Clonskeagh Road near Ashton's pub. The scheme also includes a coffee shop, plaza, riverside walkway and a small museum dedicated to the history of Smurfit's paper mills. Prices are likely to start at the half a million euro mark and head skywards for bigger apartments.

Gossip is a winner at Irish Times awards

With the present uncertainty in some sections of the property market, last Friday's Irish Times property awards saw plenty of talk about the prospects over the coming months. These ranged from boundless optimism from the new homes sector to despondency of those selling second hand homes in the mid to upper end of the market.

Anecdotes were flying as the party moved into the Ice Bar and there was a general acknowledgement that property has had a great run - and it's not over yet. Veterans remembered the bad old days of the 1980s while some of the younger entrants have never seen a poor day. The words "soft landing" were being bandied about, and there's an acceptance that second hand house prices are now what they were at this time last year, with the hyped-up gains of the spring but a memory.

All they have to do now is persuade their vendors to settle for a more realistic price, so that they clear the current over supply before next spring. Some prospective sellers are now planning to postpone putting their property on until autumn 2007 to get over the current blip.

The industry chat will resume tomorrow when the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute stages its now annual President's lunch at the Burlington Hotel. The former Tory chancellor of the Exchequer, Kenneth Clarke, will be the guest speaker at what is always a hugely popular event that marks the beginning of the Christmas party season. The host will be the popular president John Dawson who is half way through his term in a turbulent year for property. Clarke is not the first British politician to address the auctioneers. The late Robin Cook was one of the events best speakers in recent years.