By her own admission business has been slow for Aileen Walsh in recent months. It is, she says, indicative of the current finical climate here in Ireland. The housing market has been affected by the economic downturn more then most industries and Aileen, a conveyancing lawyer, has experienced that decline first hand.

Thankfully for Aileen the resulting fear and interpretation that had threatened to engulf the property market has started to receded in recent months, and, she says, "things are beginning to look up again".

Born in Limerick, Aileen came to Cork to study Law in UCC. Having qualified as a solicitor in 1988, she got my first job in JV Walsh Solicitors Fermoy, where, she says, "I got a great grounding in the practice of conveyancing and the taxation implications involved with the gifting of property".

"I worked there for seven years before I started my own practice in Fermoy. After three years however, I unfortunately had to wind up the business as I found that the overheads of running an office on your own are very high and it was proving difficult to sustain a good income for the work I was putting in. After that I began working in a number of both urban and rural practices. That was until 2006 when I was prompted to start up a conveyancing practice working from home."

For Aileen there was never any doubt about the career path she would choose, and armed with the experience gained from her past solo endeavour and the financial lessons that were subsequently learned, she has set about building up her business and clientele to suit both her own needs and the demands of the customer.

"I love conveyancing law," she says, "and have got tremendous assistance over the past two years from my brother Willis a conveyancing barrister in Cork who is widely held to be the best conveyancing barrister in this country. I've also been fortunate enough to have good bank support. Now, because I work from home, my overheads are very low and this allows me to make a fairly decent living from fixed cost conveyancing.

"I meet my clients at locations convenient to us both and often this is in their own homes. My clientele comes from all walks of life and are of all ages. By and large I am lucky to have clients who are decent ordinary people wanting a good and efficient service which I hope I give them. I converted a box-office at home into work-space and my staff consists of one - just me and my laptop, so it's a very personal service that I'm offering."

Aileen's management skills have been tested in recent months she says as a result of a downturn in the property market, but she now sees light at the end of the tunnel. "Conveyancing has seen a huge falloff since the days in 2006 when investors were queuing up to buy new houses. Unfortunately this falloff has hit the construction industry terribly and I heard recently of a construction worker who had to sign on for the dole for the first time in 34 years. I blame a lot of our troubles on the US but am hopeful that because it is an election year over there things will improve economically for all.

"At the end of January I actually said to a friend of mine that if things didn't pick up I could be out of business myself in three months. It had been a terrible couple of months. Fortunately that hasn't been the case and there are signs that the market is creeping back in again.

"The market in second hand houses has definitely improved since the beginning of the year but new houses are still selling very slowly. Considering that a person can buy a pretty expensive new house to live in without incurring any stamp duty I am a little surprised on the small take up of this exemption. The younger market has been severly affected what with the 100% loans gone. They were giving them out willy-nilly only a year ago, but that's since stopped. I recently got a 92% loan, but that's about as high as the banks will go. But they are lending again, which is very important.

"Young people think house prices are going to fall further still, but I'm not in a position to say whether that definitely will or will not happen. But the one thing that does seem to be true is that it has become a buyers market again and the investors market appears to have gone. The next three months I believe will be crucial, but I'm certainly optimistic about the future.

Aileen Walsh can be contacted on 0851404169.

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