"Ladies and gentlemen, the great man is due to arrive any minute so please take your seats." The great man in question was none other than Bertie Ahern, the delayed guest of honour at last week's launch of Property Partners, the newly formed countrywide franchise set up by independent estate agents. There was an impressive turnout for the reception in the ballroom of Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel where the principals of 27 agencies signed up for the new service. Brian Curran, the newly appointed chief executive, will oversee the single branding for Property Partners who at this stage have 5,000 properties on their books worth £2 billion. Not bad to be going on with and, according to the Roscommon-based chairman, John Earley, they will soon have a representative in every county - provided the Sherry FitzGerald franchise service doesn't get there first. Property Partners has a strong line-up already with names like Danno Heaslip in Galway, Pat Quinn, Longford, Philip O'Reilly, Ennis, W J Keegan, Tullamore and Paul Kelly, Letterkenny.

Far from hinting that there would be any relaxation of the Bacon measures in next month's Budget, the Taoiseach claimed that the Government's intervention in the market was now "beginning to bite", leading to a slowdown in the rate of increase in average house prices - though surely this is more about recent interest rate increases than badly thought out Government action. The Government is also to move shortly to eliminate gazumping. The Taoiseach said a new law would be introduced to level the playing pitch for both vendors and buyers. While the Government is obviously not planning to do anything about the rental market until first-time buyers have been satisfied, don't be surprised if stamp duty is cut in the budget. Whether this will include the punitive 9 per cent rate currently being paid by investors is another matter.