The IAVI faces home truths

Around the Block:The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI)'s flights of fancy seem to be over now that it has decided to hold this year's conference in Kilkenny.

For the last few years the institute has been partying all over the Continent, but in line with the new realism in the property market, it is now settling for a more modest outing. The day event in Kilkenny will be held in the gracious surroundings of the Lyrath estate though with a busy agenda the agents may not have much time to sit around in bathrooms in between spa sessions. Unlike previous conferences, when much of the time was spent on marvelling at the values in the domestic and overseas market, this year's event will be more pragmatic, with one of the key sessions devoted to "Dawn raids and requests for information - revenue audits, revenue off-shore assets group". Ouch! Other equally mundane modules will be on the operations of An Bord Pleanála and the need for estate agents being branded. And if that isn't enough, a high profile American speaker will fly in to talk about "The Transparent Brown Envelope - America's legitimate lobbying system." Welcome back to the real world.

 Losing appetite for poaching at SCS dinner

Meanwhile it will be a full house tonight in Burlo when the Society of Chartered Surveyors holds its annual dinner. It will be the biggest gathering since the society set up in 1895 with no less than 1,500 people jammed in for the night. All the top commercial and residential agencies will be entertaining their clients while keeping an eye on who is at the opposition's table. The night is notorious for poaching both staff and clients, though with both markets easing - apart from the office sector - agencies may not be offering too many golden handshakes to wet-behind-the-ears graduates.

As usual the SCS is keeping the guest speaker's name under wraps until they appear on the podium, but it's unlikely to be an economist given that both Colm McCarthy and Dan McLoughlin spoke in recent years along with Charlie McCreevy and, last year, Sean Dunne who grabbed the headlines by comparing stockbrokers to hyenas. Hopefully it will be someone with a fresh take on the state of both property markets which are now so central to the economic well being of the country.

Developers get cautious

Watch out for the slowdown on building sites particularly in the outlying areas of Dublin where sales are slow to take off because of an obvious change in sentiment and fear of further rises in interest rates. Developers who had got used to selling in volume are having a hard time readjusting to a slower market and more intense competition for sales. The changing environment has not gone unnoticed by the banks, who just a year ago were throwing money at every developer in town, and offering discount mortgages to all comers. With sales slowing they are now looking at advance sales before guaranteeing to fund entire schemes, particularly those with several hundred units. The slowdown won't cause too much pain to the bigger cash-rich developers who can afford to slow down their operations for a year or more. A reduced supply will inevitably mean that the market will pick up sooner, though not before smaller developers feel the pain of an empty showhouse at weekends.

The most vulnerable locations are in the far-flung reaches of the greater Dublin area which, without decent transport links, will be the first to suffer. However, schemes close in will continue to sell well and rent well. Last weekend a development of apartments and penthouses at East Wall Road in Dublin 3 sold particularly well at realistic prices - €310,000 to €345,000 for one-bedroom apartments and €375,000 to €420,000 for two-bedroom units. Sales agents Brian Dwyer & Partners sold 80 per cent of the units available.

• We've heard of pop-up books but pop-up shops? It's a new concept being developed in Smithfield where from next Tuesday, vintage Argentinian furniture will be on sale for five days at a unit on the corner of Haymarket and Smithfield Plaza. Lots of quirky pieces collected in Buenos Aires by by journalist Alanna Gallagher will be on show.