Irish respond to lure of UK market

IRISH investors ploughed over €1 billion into commercial property in the UK in the past year, but we also put hundreds of million euro into our neighbour's housing and apartment markets.

Despite cautionary notes of UK prices reaching the top of a cycle (growth averaged over 20% in 2002, to a national house price average of €212,000 - about on a price par with the Irish national house price average of €200,000-plus), those who invest outside of the inflated property hotspots in the South East are likely to see better returns than are available in many Irish buys.

Irish buyers, dubbed the New Arabs, are being lured by prospects of capital appreciation such as was seen in this country in the late 1990s, but knowledge of locations which are secure and/or on the rise is essential.