Mr. John Moran:

I would disagree. We are on no side, that is the reality of the situation. We act for buyers and sellers all the time. I think I said at the outset and I passionately believe this - we need a functioning property market. People forget that property is effectively land, which is a factor of production, which is necessary for economic activity to take place. As a practitioner I would much rather see a property market that has increasing values in line with whatever the prevailing inflation rates are at the time. I have no interest in participating in booms and busts, I have no interest in keeping values artificially high. I have to run a business and I can assure the committee running a business in the cyclical industry that is property is not very pleasant. We would rather see slow, steady growth.

As I said, property is a factor of production. Without it people do not have roofs over their heads. They do not have shops to shop in or offices to work in. It is a necessary function of a functioning economy. I believe that slow, steady growth rather than this boom and bust cycle we have seen time and time again is far preferable.