Thousands of small investors managed to climb on the gravy train buying second homes and apartments

IT HAS BEEN one hell of a ride since The Irish Times launched Ireland's first property supplement 20 years ago this month. In that time the property industry has changed the face of Ireland and brought enormous wealth to a great many people.

Property developers have been the main beneficiaries of the long running property boom but there have also been others - like the land owners, the lending institutions, the estate agents, the professional investors and the newspapers. Thousands of small investors also managed to climb on to the gravy train, buying second homes or letting apartments while the vast majority of home owners have watched their properties increase steadily in value - until the present crisis struck last autumn. But even with recent slippages in values, most have achieved significant financial security.

We have all come a long way from 1988 when there were signs that the property industry was beginning to emerge from yet another recession. Apartment prices had fallen by up to 25 per cent and in the first six months of the year development work had started on only 139 of these units throughout the country.

Nevertheless houses were beginning to sell again and, with developers and agents itching to ramp up the market, The Irish Times decided to break with convention and use its newly installed printing press to produce Ireland's first weekly colour property supplement on Thursdays. Up to then property coverage had been in the main newspaper on Fridays. The new supplement undoubtedly helped to put the property market on a new footing and in due course it attracted a new generation of developers and investors.

The first supplement was restricted to eight pages - four of them in colour shared between editorial and advertising - and once the market picked up there was considerable competition between the estate agents for advertising space on the colour pages. The printing operation was later upgraded to allow the supplement to be increased in size to 24 pages but even then it was still a long way from the printing capacity of the present presses in City West which have occasionally produced property supplements of up to 66 pages in addition to the main newspaper.

In recent years the range of editorial coverage has been greatly expanded to ensure that the publication maintains its dominant position in the market. The success of the supplement has invariably led to numerous attempts at imitation in other newspapers but happily The Irish Times publication remains the clear market leader for the breadth and depth of its coverage.

The most notable sale in the first issue of the supplement was that of the famed Barrettstown House and its 100-acre stud farm near Newbridge, Co Kildare, which changed hands at less than £400,000. Barrettstown is now a world famous holiday resort for sick children. The arrival of the new supplement in September 1988 was followed by a pick up in the auction market for second-hand houses. Prices seemed relatively modest, such as the £190,500 paid for 33 St Kevin's Park in Dartry, Dublin 6, or the £152,400 accepted after auction for 17 Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6. Two houses at Upper Leeson Street made £194,000 and £228,600 under the hammer and an even bigger house at 47 Dartmouth Square could only fetch £185,420.

The biggest change in Dublin since the launch of the property supplement has been the re-creation of a living city in areas which had become either derelict or seriously dilapidated. Much of this redevelopment was promoted through tax incentives and, with thousands of mainly young people now living in the city centre and ever more anxious to move in, there are few remaining development opportunities apart from in the north docklands or possibly on part of the Guinness brewery site when it becomes available. Dublin is once again a vibrant city with busy streets at night as well as during the day.

Another major change over the past 20 years has been the inexorable spread of suburbia on all sides of the city with the accompanying problems of commuting, schooling, shopping and back up services. A change of policy has favoured high density residential developments close to public transport services but, with ever more families wanting to live in a house with its own garden rather than an apartment, it is questionable whether couples will make long term commitments for high rise units.

There seems to be no such reservations by young professionals moving into the docklands where new apartment developments have been pushing ahead alongside vast new office blocks being rented to the city's top professional firms and a range of international companies. In that time we have experienced a series of highs and lows in the housing market but even in the bad times houses continued to be bought and sold. The same will happen again once the present difficulties are resolved.