Several high end furniture and appliance outlets are bringing business to homeowners nationwide. Architect and designers Arthur Duff and Greg Tisdall have opened a swish new southside outlet on Taney Road, Goatstown, Dublin 14. Duff-Tisdall Southside (www. duff-tisdall. ie) will stock a comprehensive collection of their high-end contemporary furniture, lighting, rugs and select home accessories.

Aga continues with its aim to dominate the nation in the castiron cooker stakes with the opening in Galway (yesterday) of its latest retail outlet which will also stock the Rayburn brand. New devotees of the Aga way of life can learn how to master the skills of those hot plates and ovens at a series of ongoing cookery demonstrations over the next few weeks. www. aga. ie.

It may seem sacrilegious to think of Christmas shopping on a Halloween Bank Holiday . . . but that's what early birds will be doing at the Orshof Christmas Market in Kildare Village from 27 October.

A variety of Christmas decorations will complement the Orshof home collection of distressed furniture, candelabra and various vintage pieces sourced by the Belgian family who run the market.

For more details on the store and opening hours, log on to www.KildareVillage. com

DON'T MOVE HOUSE . . . MOVE MORTGAGE

Homeowners are increasingly on the move . . . to mortgage lenders with better rates. The majority are after a better deal, but many people are also consolidating existing high-interest debt (credit cards, car loans, etc) by re-mortgaging. The Irish Mortgage Corporation examined results from its clients who refinanced with the company between April and September of this year.

The highest percentage (39%) of re-financers were borrowing more to finance home improvements; 35% were availing of lower interest rates; 29% were doing so to switch lender; 29% were paying off a car loan; 25% to clear credit card bills; and 2% to help children purchase property. (Results added up to greater than the 100% total as many respondents chose more than one option as their re-"nancing reason).

DULUX SEES THE LIGHT

Shrinking the kids is not a viable option for homeowners tight for space. Dulux Paints may be stating the obvious with its research findings that 75 % of respondents say they eventually move house for space reasons, but it has come up with a new palette of colours, Light and Space, which it says uses optical brightening technology to re"ect twice as much light around the room.

"The range helps create the perception of more light and space for those small pokey rooms, north facing, and box rooms with little natural light, " says Lisa McNulty of Dulux.

Light and Space retails at 28.99 for 2.5 litres; 48.99 for 5 litres. www. dulux. ie

INVESTORS STILL SHOPPING FOR RETAIL

Despite the slowdown in the property market, a total of 77% of all money invested in Ireland in recent months was invested in retail property, with 13% invested in of"ce property.

According to research carried out by Jones Lang LaSalle, investors believe that property still offers them the best return for their money and a relatively stable medium at that. Investing in shares is a much less attractive prospect says head of research, Dr Clare Eriksson. "Irish share values dropped by 15%. Elsewhere, share prices worldwide have fluctuated wildly in reaction to uncertainty about the stability of the US sub-prime housing market." In terms of commercial property, Ireland currently has the third highest shopping centre space per capita in Europe, with almost 368sq m of space for every 1,000 inhabitants, the research found. Only Sweden and the Netherlands have more shopping centre space per head of population.

ONE IN FIVE LANDLORDS LET UNSAFE HOMES

With the property market in a state of flux, many people are opting to rent instead of buy, but beware. Official figures . . .contained in the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin for 2006 . . .reveal that one in five landlords in Ireland are letting unsafe properties which do not meet basic health and safety standards.

Strangely though, just 36 landlords out of a staggering 1,700 who let unsafe properties have been brought to court over the condition of their shoddy homes.