THE chat at tomorrow's Irish Auctioneers and Valuers (IAVI) president's lunch at the Burlo is likely to centre on just one thing - the state of the market. Estate agents are good at putting a brave face on things and undoubtedly the 640 or so members present will be telling each other how busy they are and in fact it's probably true.
With properties sticking on the market for months rather than weeks, agents are finding all their time taken up viewing houses and giving valuations, rather than with the far more interesting bit of actually selling.
Behind the scenes, they're saying that sales are being agreed at less than asking prices, though the sales process can be excruciatingly slow as buyers are inclined to start very low indeed with their offers, and then dither, or discover that they cannot get finance after all.
IAVI president Robert Ganly, who hosts tomorrow's lunch, has lined up Donegal-born business leader turned British management guru Sir Gerry Robinson (right) to show Ireland's property industry who's the boss at tomorrow's Burlington hotel lunch. Why Robinson, an accountant whose varied and starry career has taken him into all sorts of industries - except property? Because there's nothing more boring than property people talking to property people, says Ganly. Robinson - once high profile boss of Granada television, chairman of drinks company Allied Domecq and current chairman of motorway firm Moto Hospitality - will talk about his most frustrating business experiences.
Knighted in 2003 by Tony Blair, Robinson morphed into a guru with BBC TV series I'll Show Them Who's Boss followed by a book of the same title, and most recently presented BBC2 series, Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS?
