If you thought it was only in Ireland that a government could interfere in the property markets - with such dire and predictable consequences - you're wrong. On a recent visit to Australia, a colleague discovered that, in 1985, the Australian government, believing that young couples would never again be able to afford to buy a home, introduced a range of measures designed to "slow down" the booming property market (shades of Bacon!).

Guess what - within weeks investors had fled the market, rental properties dried up, and the young couples who heretofore could not afford to buy a home suddenly found that they could not afford to rent one either. Now, where have you heard that before? The good news, subsequently, was that the Australians rolled back the measures in 1987. They realised that it is easier (and less expensive for the taxpayer) for investors to house the less well-off. As investors came back into the market, rents stabilised and then came down - but not before a great deal of damage had been done.