Top hotels lead the big

Foreign investors aretaking advantage of sharply reduced prices, with the sale of the Burlington, Fota Island Hotel and others attracting American and Chinese investors. Realistic prices are helping to attract these overseas buyers and breathing some life into a moribund market. Tommy Barker says major property sales were also a good sign and it’s likely that receivership sales will feature more strongly in 2013.

THE country is wide open to visitors, à la the Gathering, in 2013, and it’s also open for property cherry-picking.

International eyes are eyeing up — and snapping up — some of the country’s best built assets, being sold at a fraction of boom time prices, yet assets that Irish buyers can’t seem to afford to fund.