With the backlog of houses on the market already at its highest level for many years, and the Government take from stamp duty steadily declining, it's now over to Brian Cowen to get the property market moving again with a cut in stamp duty.

Several organisations have asked that the top rate of duty be reduced to 5 per cent which would not only help househunters trading up but might also encourage investors back into the new homes market where they pay 9 per cent on apartments and houses.

The Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute submitted a rather whimsical Q&A-style paper to the Government, purporting to be based on an interview with the finance minister. The auctioneers say that exchequer greed has contributed in no small way to "decimating" the property market and with it the income of their members, particularly in Dublin. They tell the minister that buyers have had enough, and have collectively conspired to "bite back" by reducing the number of property transactions and the revenue going to the exchequer. They also argue that the current banding method is extremely unfair, as even a marginal increase in price results in a totally disproportionate increase in stamp duty. And so on . . . but will the minister take any notice?

He has always been in favour of lower house prices, and the market is certainly moving in that direction with cuts of anything up to 20 per cent in many cases, with still no buyers in sight. A stalled market is no good to the Government or the industry, and with more and more building sites closing down every week and unemployment edging up again, wouldn't it be better to get 5 per cent of something rather than 9 per cent of nothing?

Buyers and sellers have been coming up with some imaginative excuses to get themselves out of deals in this uncertain market, but we do like the latest one from the owner of a country pile who had been planning to put it on the market next week, but has now decided to hold off until next spring because, wait for it, the leaves have all blown off the trees and so it wouldn't look good in the photos!