TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan can be assured of a warmer welcome to an estate agents’ conference in Donegal this weekend than she got at the recent teachers’ conferences.
The Donegal TD and Minister for Education will be the guest of honour at the convention dinner of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) which is being staged in the newly restored Solis Lough Eske Castle at the foot of the Blue Stack Mountains.
The institute is expecting at least 160 of its 900 members to attend Saturday’s convention where two experts, Dr Brian Lucey of Trinity College and Patrick Koucheravy of CB Richard Ellis, will be expected to throw some light on when the property market is likely to bottom out and bank funding could become available again.
Another guest speaker, Thomas Lynch of the National Property Regulatory Services Authority, is due to outline the tighter registration procedures that will shortly apply, not only to selling agents, but also to those individuals letting or managing properties.
Up to now, only estate agency offices were required to register, often allowing any number of management or staff to operate the business.
In future, all personnel will be obliged to register as well as the office. The long-delayed legislation to give legal status to the authority is “almost there”, according to Fintan McNamara, the chief executive of IPAV. He will be pressing the State agency to agree to a renewal of licences every three years rather than every 12 months to “save us from bureaucratic red tape”. The suggestion is not likely to be adopted because of the loss of income involved.
