IF YOU think about it, the type of dramatic headlines that have been in the press recently about the property market going bust are just expressing a shortterm view, whereas property requires a longterm perspective.

Most people buy houses to live in - it's only investors that might look at it for a shortterm gain. So if there really was a bust, then we'd be seeing investors "ee the market. But they're not, they're holding on to property, con"dent of good capital appreciation.

While it's true that the market has changed, everyone in the country still needs a place to live and there are still huge numbers of people who haven't yet bought.

It is expected that by the year 2015 there will be over "ve million people living in Ireland and a very large majority of those are expected to be in the 25-34-year-old "rst-time-buyer age group. All these people will still need somewhere to live. Property is not a luxury, it's one of the basic needs.

So when you think about it in these terms, it's only a slowdown relative to the phenomenal growth of the boom years.

In reality, the new homes property market is still going strong, it's just not growing at the same rate.

We've had 1.5 million hits on our website (www. sherlockhomes. ie) since we started up in October 2006.

This indicates that there is still huge interest in buying new homes in Ireland. Our home-ownership rates are still one of the highest in the EU.

While the phenomenal growth in the property industry has started to slow, what we see re"ected through our website is that buyers are now taking their time when buying. This is re"ected in the amount of return visitors to the website on a daily basis who request brochures for new homes. The market has calmed and the mania and stress which many buyers were subject to is now a thing of the past - but I think this bene"ts all of us.

We've had a doubling of new house builds in just over "ve years, from about 50,000 in 2002 to a record of over 93,000 last year. Now we're seeing the economy and public infrastructure aspects like roads and rail playing catch-up. In the face of so much frenzied activity over the boom years, we really needed a period of relative stability in order for this to happen.

As a result, it has turned into a buyer's market but this is just a sign of the cyclical nature of the property market. Even in the boom times the market had peaks and troughs, with the most activity from February to May and from September to November.

There's been a lot of talk about whether Irish people would become renters for life, as is the trend on the continent. But I think it's more likely that the Irish will create a trend towards home ownership overseas. We're known as a nation of property lovers and by nature we all want to own our own homes. If nothing else, I also believe that there's something in the Irish psyche that would do anything possible to prevent a property bust.

I think now that we've had it so good for so long, that we won't want to lose that. For that reason I think people will continue to have con"dence in property and that the current plateau in the market will be followed by further growth.