Real estate sales hit €4.5bn

Investment in the country’s real estate market reached record levels last year with a number of new players coming to the fore accounting for much the activity. More than €4.5bn was spent on real estate in 2014 making it the highest amount ever invested in the Irish market surpassing the previous peak by more than €900m.

The number of deals also increased dramatically over the past 12 months to 295 – a rise of more than 150.

“2014 has been a very active year for the property market. At this point last year no one predicted the strength and pace of the recovery which we have seen in the last 12 months,” Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) head of research, Hannah Dwyer said.