"I would be interested in hearing your medium to long-term outlook for the Irish property market as you previously commented that you consider the broader Irish economy to be a reasonable medium to long term recovery candidate, even if the property market shows little sign of having bottomed out.

"Thanks for the great service that is adding me to the ranks of those being slowly hauled out of the abyss of ignorance."

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you your kind words and for this interesting question. Ireland does not have an official register of property prices, so it is hard to make a judgement call on whether prices have bottomed. The Irish Permanent TSB / ESRI New Homes Average House Price Index topped out above €300,000 in early 2007 and had fallen to under €250,000 when it was discontinued in mid 2009. By all accounts prices have fallen further since then. So let us assume average prices are closer to €200,000 today which would tally with estimates that prices have fallen nationally by 30 - 40%.

Every major bull market peak is associated with an explosion of supply. In the equity markets, IPOs are at their most popular when prices are at their highest. In the bond markets, issuers rush to lock in low yields when prices are high. In commodity markets, miners and farmers attempt to get capture as much market share as possible by increasing supply. In property markets, developers attempt to cash in on strong demand and build aggressively. There is no shortage of housing supply in Ireland. It will take a long time to clear this inventory.

Taking conservative numbers, the average industrial wage is around €30,000 so a dual income family could earn somewhere in the region of €50,000. At present with an unemployment rate of 13% the number of dual income families has decreased which is damaging to sentiment. Banks are much choosier about who they lend to, which is making credit more difficult to access. Variable interest rates have also risen as banks attempt to shore up their balance sheets. However, my sister recently bought a three-bedroom townhouse because the mortgage was quite a bit less than the rent she was paying for a one-bedroom flat in the same area of Dublin.

When paying a mortgage is cheaper than renting, it is usually safe to assume that affordability has returned to a semblance of normality. However, bottoming out and recovery are not the same thing. There is no evidence yet that the market has conclusively bottomed but it is closer to a bottom now than it was in 2007. A lengthy convalescence is the most likely scenario once prices stabilise as the excess inventory is worked through.

The caveat of course is that property is all about location and some areas will perform better than others. The opposite is also true. The low population density of the North West relative to the number of properties built means the sector is likely to take considerably longer to recover.

This interesting, though perhaps partisan, article by Brendan Conway in today's Irish Times may also be of interest.