IT WAS interesting to hear Bertie Ahern admit that about 150,000 people had bought holiday homes abroad in the middle of his conversation with Pat Kenny on radio yesterday.

This suggests that there’s a report somewhere – from Revenue, perhaps? – with information about all those people who got caught up in the overseas buying frenzy of the tiger years. Up to now, the number of foreign property owners has always been a bit of a guess: lots of people bought through agents abroad, and Irish agents went to court to fight off the tax authorities when they demanded to see records of overseas sales.

It’s just another reminder that reality is biting for lots of people with foreign holiday homes. Many have already come to grief as foreign developers disappear with money handed over on properties never built, “guaranteed” rental incomes vanish and letter boxes fill with tax demands in a language they don’t understand. The kind of people who would have benefitted hugely from reading Buying Overseas Property Safely, a step-by-step manual on how to buy safely abroad.

The UK-based Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP) has just released the fourth edition of its consumer guide which tells potential buyers important stuff like “10 questions to ask your agent” and “Five common pitfalls”. The 64-page publication has a full list of AIPP members who’ve signed up to a code of conduct.

The AIPP was formed in 2006 to make the international property market a safer place in which to buy property says its chief executive Paul Owen – and about a fifth of agents who apply to join it don’t pass its entrance tests.

To get hold of the guide free call 044 407-74097061

enquiries@app.org.uk; www.aipp.org.uk