As the UK property market boom continues while Ireland’s falters, leading agents have told the Sunday Independent that English buyers are bidding for Ireland’s Georgian country homes like never before. Most auctioneers agree that the primary reason for such a shift is the sterling/euro exchange rate which gives the UK buyer nearly a third of a discount on Irish prices at the outset.

Leading country homes auctioneers, Knight Frank Ganly Walters, says it has noticed a very large increase in the number of UK buyers and enquiries in the Irish market for country houses and cottages since the start of this year. The age profile of British buyers is between 30 and 50 and, according to Robert Ganly, they are a mixture of “old money and new money”.

“The big attraction with Ireland is its lack of formality and lack of class system,” he says. “They are also coming to live here for our schools as Ireland still has the best school educational system of any country in the world, which is a huge draw, plus, of course, school fees are a lot cheaper here in comparison to public schools there, by up to two thirds.”

David Ashmore, of the country division of Savills Hamilton Osborne King, agrees.

“The profile is either those relocating here for work reasons or those a little older who are coming here with a view to living out their retirement years in the Irish countryside. Also the great improvements in rural broadband connectivity cannot be ignored as it means they can keep in touch with their office or business while at the country house,” he says.

Savills suggest that those relocating here to work usually buy as their principal family home but may, like their Irish counterpart, have a pied a terre in Dublin or London near their place of work. Others buy here as their country estate and may divide their time between here and a more permanent home in the UK, often within London and its 50 mile hinterland.

Posted: 07|1|07 at 3:01 pm. Filed under: Auction News.