I was chatting to an estate agent today about the state of the property market just at the moment. He pointed out something I hadn't thought of as a possible boost for the industry in the not-to-distant future.

Of course, there was the obvious and much hyped prospects of the 2010 World Cup. But there are also general elections in 2009. And as he mentioned, the ANC is not likely to go into those elections without warming up the general populace a bit. His prediction - a drop in interest rates regardless of where the inflation rate might be at the time. And they'll have to start that in good time.

What else could they do to appease folk for the harsh medicine currently being doled out?