THE women on the Brown Thomas escalator are discussing the imminent arrival of a certain TV presenter.

"She's very like that 'cook' woman . . . Nigella."

"Yes, she's really classy."

Up on the third floor is the woman in question, Kirstie Allsopp, who is indeed very classy, and with the gleaming hair, good teeth, pale skin and all-round rosy health typical of the well bred, English upper- crust. The presenter of the awkwardly monikered Channel 4 property shows Location, Location, Location, and, more recently, Relocation, Relocation and Location Revisited, is also tall, and . . . in refreshing contrast to the half-starved women who feature in so much of current media . . . has the sort of curvy figure that could be described as buxom. There's also that glamour associated with people regularly featured on the telly, but Allsopp's sparkle is also down to her new love affair . . . with the baby boy she gave birth to at the end of the summer. In the true tradition of the celeb baby, he has a typical 'Come again?' name. But the arrival of Bay Atlas (named after one of Allsopp's great grandfathers) invites gasps of wonder for a different reason.

He weighed in at an eye-watering 11 lbs 11 ozs. "Obviously, they took him out through the 'sun roof ', " beams his proud mum on explaining the need for a Caesarean section. "But there was an audible gasp in the delivery room when he arrived. He was the biggest baby born in the hospital."

All of this information is delivered in Allsopp's trademark frank, friendly and undeniably posh accent. With her impeccable good manners, nice frocks and smart coats, she admits that her image is a tad 'Sloaney' . . . but she doesn't seem to mind that the UK press have been less than kind on occasion. The woman with a passion for property says a reviewer once described her as having "a voice that sounded like a chandelier crashing down a marble staircase. I actually took that as a compliment, and my mother said to me 'well, dear, if you think it's a nice thing to say about you, that's all that matters'."

A journalist who was also a former classmate from Bedales . . . England's most expensive public school . . . described Allsopp as being "un-trendy, attention-seeking and desperate to fit in".

Jolly hockey-sticks accent, frumpy clothes or not, Allsopp has fitted in very nicely, into that television 8pm to 9pm slot, where an exhausted nation watches how they should be cooking, cleaning, looking good naked and buying a better house.

Allsopp, co-presenting with Phil Spencer, has worked that national obsession with property into a ratings topper. She is a television natural. While her make-up and hair are cover-girl perfect for our Sunday Tribune interview, she says that's due to "a wonderful girl called Sarah-Jane downstairs in the Brown Thomas cosmetics department. I don't have a stylist, or a PA for the programmes . . . often I'm hastily trying to put on make-up with just a compact mirror or in a tiny bathroom in some property, just before the cameras start rolling."

As the daughter of an interior designer and antique dealer, and brought up in a house where a favourite family game was guessing the price of vast estates advertised in Country Living, it would seem that a career in property was always going to be handed to her on a gold plate. She is the girlfriend of 45year-old property millionaire Ben Anderson. But Allsopp had already been working in the market for five years before her TV career took off, finding homes for private clients through the company she set up, Kirmir Property Search, and then joining up with future co-presenter Phil as a partner at Garrington Homefinders. She also did a stint in the editorial section of Country Living, completed an art history course at Christies and worked for Hindlip & Prentice Interiors.

What has she learned about the property market? For one thing, when it comes to couples buying, it's the woman who makes the final decision. "Men may decide on which car, or which lawnmower, but when it comes to a house, a man will go with a woman's choice in 95% of cases. If a man came along alone to viewings, I would always ask if he had a partner, because a woman will always make the final judgement, particularly if another woman . . . me . . . was making the suggestions.

I can remember when Phil and I were looking for a property for a really well-known rock musician, and his girlfriend was very apathetic, shrugging her shoulders and seeming not to care. I said to Phil, 'you know, she's going to to dump him'. And she did, shortly afterwards."

The property market in central London is very similar to that of Dublin, but, like the rest of us, Allsopp is still amazed at just how many properties have broken the 1m mark. "God, who is earning that sort of money, especially when you equate salaries to the prices being asked? What sort of mortgages are people on?"

Having said that, the thing she has learned most is that the title of her programme is still the most important factor for buyers to consider. "I live in the ugliest building, but on one of the best roads in London [near Holland Park]. My neighbours have to look at the exterior, but from my perspective, on the inside it's wonderful. I would urge buyers, first-timers included, to take the long view . . . stretch yourself for a really good area, even if the house in question is the worst in that district. With location, you have to consider, does this area have everything you need, or will you be stuck on the outskirts with no amenities, away from friends?"

She has been an outspoken critic of the UK government's Home Information Pack, chiefly because it was "very illthought out". On the softer side of things, she has just launched a new product range, Moving Sense, that incorporates a pack of three fragrant candles individually designed for selling a home, moving home, or for a house- warming party.

There are also three natty tool kits, designed with female users in mind. Each 'toolbox', being either a starter tool kit, sewing kit or picture hanging kit, has nostalgia-styled packing designed within a box that looks like the hardback cover of a 1930s' adventure book. With the emphasis on make-do and mend, there are strong domestic goddess overtones to the designs.

Funnily enough, Allsopp has arrived in Dublin with the cocreater of the brand, William Miller, who was Nigella Lawson's former business partner. What with sewing kits and scented candles, sister Sophie now taking the reins in telly property presenting, and a desire to spend more time with baby Bay, can we take it that Allsopp is directing longing looks more to her own London home than finding places for others?

She is emphatic that the headlines in the UK press insisting that she is giving up her television career to be a stay-athome mum are all rubbish, and that her contract with Channel 4 doesn't end until 2008. There is no doubt, however, that she is experiencing a dilemma that most new mothers face . . . the balance between baby and work.

"Becoming a mother definitively has changed my views, about everything. My mum said it would, and I knew it would, but you are still not prepared for it. I'm not stridently feminist and would be loath to come down strongly in either the stayat-home camp, or conversely, the strict career woman camp.

But if pushed to it, I would probably like to spend more time at home with Bay."

One thing on which she is resolute is that every stage of her baby's development will not be splashed over the pages of the celebrity gossip magazines. "He might be governor of the Bank of England some day, and wouldn't want to know there were photographs of him as a baby, lying naked on a sheepskin rug.

I made a conscious decision from the start that he wouldn't appear in Hello! or OK. Everyone has my mobile phone number, but that's me, and it's fine. But there are parameters that it's possible to guard. It's all down to playing the game with the media and a lot of the people who complain about intrusion have courted it in the first place. Of course, there are photographers all around the place, but you can still work , yet keep your private life just that . . . private."

Now, that is classy. . .

The Moving Sense range by Kirstie Allsopp is available exclusively at Brown Thomas, Dublin