To move or to stay, to trade up or simply adapt the space you have - these are the questions that many Dublin homeowners will be asking themselves as the spring selling season gets underway.

With interest rates remaining steady, and house prices expected to show modest, rather than spectacular rises this year, the time could be right for a move up the property ladder. However, trading up involves some hard mathematics. Stamp duty, estate agents' fees, advertising and legal costs add up to an expensive package, on top of the extra cost of funding a larger mortgage. In fact, trading up has become such an expensive process that many homeowners are deciding to extend or renovate their existing house instead of buying another.

Timing is an important consideration for those intending to trade up this year.

During the boom years of the late 1990s, it was safe, and even advisable, to buy first and then sell. This is no longer the case and it's an altogether more cautious market that's emerging in 2001.

"More people are selling before they buy," says Simon Ensor, director of auctions at Sherry FitzGerald. "They are not worried about the market running away from them and they don't want to get involved in bridging finance." However, many of the leading Dublin agents are quietly optimistic that second-hand house sales, in the spring at least, will be considerably more buoyant than last autumn.

Weekend viewings so far have been busy, particularly at the mid to upper end of the market. Last weekend, for instance, Lisney showed 75 parties through a large semi-detached house on Wellington Road. The guide price is £1.5 million and the house needs extensive refurbishment.

Lisney selling agent Denis Beare expects a good campaign for this and several more expensive houses due to be auctioned this spring. "It is hard to judge until you have a few results to look at, but I get the sense that this season will be stronger than the autumn. There is a confidence out there that we haven't seen for about 12 months."

Potential buyers may be tempted to move as long as the interest rates soften. Even more important will be a perception that there is good value to be had in the second-hand market, despite the high cost of moving.

One way to avoid punitive stamp duty levels is to buy a new house, where stamp duty rates on large houses are based mainly on the cost of the site.

However, there is a general scarcity of large family homes in the traditional middle class areas, within a reasonable commuting distance of the city. The new homes market has opened strongly this year, and it is generally expected that three and four-bedroom semis and detached homes will be in particularly short supply.