The Irish Times has not had much luck in its commercial investments in recent times. Last year, top woman Maeve Donovan paid 25 times profits or €50m to a bunch of estate agents to secure myhome.ie. It was originally expected to cost about €35m.

What looked like an aggressive move back then is now looking decidedly less sound, in its most recently filed accounts profits halved to just €750,229 post tax from €1.57m a year earlier. Pre-tax profits were also seriously dented coming in at only €1.12m from €1.7m a year earlier.

Not only did the Irish Times pay top whack for myhome, it has also put some €1.4m in an ill fated investment in newaddresss.ie -- a company that aims to take the pain out of moving home.

It spent some €700,000 acquiring the company just a year earlier and then pumped as much again into it. In July this year it sold the company to Tico, but the amount paid has not been revealed.

In the meantime, myhome is running into further controversy, blocking access to bloggers who have been compiling lists recording the steep falls in house prices over the past year. All names and prices are now embedded in images so programmers can no longer use the data to do automated trawls.

Apparently chief executive Jim Miley believes anyone who is interested in buying will already know if the price has dropped! Not clear then why anyone would then want to read the supplement from the company in last Wednesday's Irish Times which -- unsurprisingly -- insisted the market is fundamentally sound. Donovan will certainly be hoping so.

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MEANWHILE, on the commercial property pages of the newspaper a Killiney residential site received top billing.

What the newspaper did not mention is that the key part of the site, Albany House, a listed structure, failed to sell last year when property developer David Kelly had hoped to secure €4m for the then 0.86 acre site off Shanganagh Road.

At that time the Irish Times reported it had planning for four bungalows.

Last summer mega developer Patrick Kelly, no relation to David, bought the site presumably through his family investment vehicle Redquartz. He has now secured some land from the adjoining house and the whole lot is now being pitched for a cool €13m. Surely a serious case of inflation in these more lean times?

The agent points to the feasibility study by O'Mahony Pike architects, which includes 23 large homes and 31 residential units in total. However, in 2004 An Bord Pleanala backed up the council in rejecting a scheme of just four bungalows as they would materially affect the character and setting of the proposed structure.

Quite a risk then to assume 31 houses even in these days of infill.

No doubt the Irish Georgian Society, which initially objected, will be keeping close eye on this one.

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IF the Kellys are still bulls, others had their horns shaved way back in the spring. Property investors around town are talking about the increasing number of builders feeling the pain.

Some schemes are apparently available at a knock down price. One on Booterstown Avenue has apartments for sale at €695,000. Not one has shifted, though the agent will be doing a full launch soon. The talk is that you can have the lot at a mere €500,000 a pop.

With the rental market the way it is, this could prove a good deal. Similar deals are available in Sandyford and on Elgin Road say those who have presumably turned them down.

Other schemes are being quietly withdrawn and builders themselves are even renting out whole schemes awaiting an uptick before trying to palm them off on the punters.

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AND a bit of bad news courtesy of Davy Stockbrokers. The guys have now decided that "another rate hike is becoming more likely by the day".

The broker notes that the ECB is stepping up its hawkish rhetoric with governing council member Axel Weber noting, as is a central banker's wont, that rates may have to move into the restrictive zone now that prices are rising "on a broad front".

Davy is now expecting one more hike to 4.25 per cent, possibly in time for Christmas.

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DAN McInerney chairman of the eponymous building group is planning on demolishing his old family home Dangan on the Glenamuck Road in Carrickmines.

McInerney is merely following the trend on the road, and few of the old homes will be left. The development bug has bitten the residents hard, and since the middle of August six separate applications have gone in to the council to knock six homes on the road with up to 300 apartments to replace them.

Another development on the road courtesy of Langan Developments is already with An Bord Pleanala. McInerney's is smaller than most, he is planning to replace the home with four five bed semis, 19 apartments in a three-storey block with some 27 car parking spaces..

Once one of the most desirable addresses in south Dublin, it'll soon be apartment central. At least they won't be objecting to one another.

- Jane Suiter