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Investors from China, including Hong Kong, are buying property in Ireland as the investment market in the country picks up after a year-long slump.
Owen Reilly, director at Dublin property consultants Owen Reilly, said his firm sold 31 homes and a shop to buyers from China, including Hong Kong, last year. Some of the buyers were Irish expatriates. 
The buyers favoured modern city-centre apartments close to colleges and Dublin-based employers such as Google and Facebook. They paid from Euro90,000 (HK$913,000) to Euro400,000 for larger three-bedroom units, usually in cash.
'They prized on-site facilities like concierge services, and usually wanted to be within a 15-minute walk of St Stephen's Green and close to public transport. The Docklands was particularly popular,' Reilly said.
Investors were attracted by the low prices and high yields. 
In central Dublin, gross yields range from 8 to 12 per cent for retail properties and 7 to 11 per cent for homes. Added incentives included stamp duty at a low rate of 1 per cent and exemption from capital-gains tax for properties held for seven years or more.
Ireland's burgeoning Chinese community is active in the market. It grew from 1,000 in 1986 to 60,000 in 2010.
At an Allsop Space property auction this month, 150 of the 3,000 attendees were of Chinese ethnicity, most looking for city-centre apartments, said Robert Hoban, Allsop's auction director.
Irish expatriates were buying houses in Dublin and along the coast to Dalkey at prices ranging from Euro800,000 to Euro5 million, Reilly said.
Mark Reynolds, the director at Savills estate agency, estimated that 10 per cent of buyers for homes worth more than Euro1 million in the capital's smart southern suburbs were Irish expatriates living in China, including Hong Kong. 
Michael Grehan, managing director of agency Sherry Fitzgerald, said many expatriates had begun thinking of returning to Ireland five years ago, but property values at the time made this impossible.
 'Now some of the properties are being sold at prices that are down by up to 65 and 70 per cent from those levels,' he said.
Stockbroker Goodbody analysed 412 sales made at Allsop Space property auctions over the past 12 months, and said values had fallen 68 per cent since the peak for prices in 2006. Official statistics show values down 48 per cent, but Goodbody says its own analysis is more accurate because it includes cash purchases which official records exclude.
Although prices are expected to fall further this year, Reynolds expects transactions to rise. 
'There will be a continued slide in prices and continued growing interest. Another 5 per cent off prices isn't going to make much difference when you already have 70 per cent off,' he said.



Irish market picking up as bargains draw in buyers