Despite the best efforts of the Government to play down house price inflation, the reality is values are still rising significantly, albeit at a slower rate, according to Dublin's biggest estate agency. Sherry FitzGerald's latest quarterly barometer shows the average price of a second-hand house in Dublin increased by 5.2 per cent during the third quarter of the year. This brings house price inflation for the first nine months of 1999 to 22.4 per cent.

The 5.2 per cent figure reflects a slowdown in the rate increase compared to the previous two quarters which registered 8.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent.

One of the interesting findings of economist Marian Finnegan is that apartments and townhouses are appreciating at a more rapid rate than larger houses at the upper end of the market. Don't expect a collapse in the market any time soon because, according to Ms Finnegan's projections, there will be a demand for 500,000 new houses and apartments between now and the year 2011.

This level of demand will be twice as high per head of population as the projections for the US and over three times the rate of construction in the UK.