Irish investors were the third largest buyers of property outside of their own country last year, according to new figures.
Commercial property group CB Richard Ellis says €103.6 billion was invested in property in the EU last year, up 26% on the previous year. The figure excludes the 10 members who joined the EU last year.
The UK represented almost half of turnover, with France second. London and Paris represented a third of the value of all deals in the EU-15.
Irish investors acquired around €4.8 billion of property in the EU-15 last year, but €3.9 billion of this was outside Ireland, making the Irish the third largest cross-border buyers after the Germans and Americans.
A high proportion of Irish investment was in the UK, but there were also buys in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Office properties made up two-thirds of Irish acquisitions. Irish investors also spent €390m in central and eastern Europe.
CB Richard Ellis Gunne research director Marie Hunt said Irish investors were increasingly looking abroad because of a relative lack of investment opportunities in the domestic market.
