Was it just me who was turned off by the following sentence about developer Donal Caulfield in Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan's obituary for the Irish housing market:

He has tried to spread his risk, with developments in Poland, the Canaries, London, Madrid and Ibiza.

Spreading risk by buying up property in a series of bubble housing markets? You spread risk by diversifying a portfolio, not by tyring to cash in on every property bubble going. Language appropriate to describe investment ought not to be used to dignify speculation.

Anyway, I know I've said that a dig out for banks is inevitable - or at least I think it is - because Irish banks, and everyone on this island as a consequence, will be in a whole load of bother as banking losses mount, but lets hope that the dig out doesn't either shore up developers or speculative property owners. There is more than one group interested in the politics of housing and, as this guy points out also in yesterday's Irish Times, there's no reason for privileging the interests of owners over aspiring owners (or indeed over taxpayers).

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