Add to this its longstanding reputation for a green and clean environment and Ireland has become a very desirable place to live in.This obviously appeals to our friends across the pond in America and they are buying up property left right and center, we are also seeing a massive influx of foreigners from abroad especially Poland.

Ireland’s desirability and especially dublin property comes at a cost.Increasing wealth, resulting from the Celtic Tiger boom years has pushed property prices up to one of the highest levels in Europe.As a result property is very expensive.An Economist study claims that the value of house is overvalued at anywhere between sixteen and eighteen per cent .

You can expect to spend in excess of two hundred and fifty thousand euro for dublin real estate where you can only squeeze a few sardines into and the worst thing is that the location isnt top notch either.Your mortgage company will love you when you approach them telling them you want to invest in a house worth 800,000 euro.Buying a character home dating between the 1850’s and 1950’s in Dublin and you can expect to pay anything between 600,000 and 1.5 million.If you are lucky you will only spend 400 thousand for a newly built house.

The demand is fuelled further by an increasing interest by the Irish themselves in irish property investment.The events of 9/11 have seen a shift in the mindset of people who invest in managed property. People are aware of the damage terrorists can do to funds that are pension type set ups.There is a constant fear that their whole life savings could be wiped out if another attack took place and that is why they are looking to invest themselves rather than let others do it for them.One third of all mortgage lending by Irish financial institutions funds people investing in the buy- to-let sector.

Every day we hear the profits of doom and gloom sayiong we are on the verge of meltdown yet it doesnt seem to be the case just yet.There are two camps, one which claims that Ireland will go the way of countries in the Far East where they experienced massive growth for ten years then saw huge collapses which have still to see the economy coming out of a recession.

All indications suggest that Ireland will continue to sustain growth in the property market.On the other side of the coin the canny investor who is thinking of houses for sale in dublin will have to become more streetwise as it will even more so become a case of location,location location,location.While rental yeilds have fallen to under three percent, Ireland has experienced the biggest property price increase in the EU, with a 187% increase over the period between 1997 and 2004.Only time will tell if rental returns show an upward curve at the moment people are taking a gamble on the value of their property increasing.

So, it may not be possible to buy at the prices that attracted thousands of Americans to the ireland real estate surge in the 80’s.Now dont get me wrong you can still pick up good returns on the rental front but you have to look around that bit more.