Britons' interest in Irish property bucks trend
Interest by Britons in Irish property still remains high despite Ireland’s economic woes, it was revealed today.
Website searches by Britons for overseas property dipped 2.3% between September and October this year, according to property company Rightmove.co.uk.
However, searches for Irish property in the period rose more than 8%, with Germany, up 7.45%, another country to buck the downward trend.
Cork had a particularly good month in October, with searches rising almost 32%.
American property also interested Britons, with New York searches up more than 9%.
Apart from Ireland, Germany and the USA, the only other countries where searches increased last month were Australia, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, Austria and India.
Rightmove’s Robin Wilson said: “We expected lifestyle buyers to begin winding down their activity as their thoughts turn to the holiday season, but the increased activity in less obvious destinations could indicate there are investors out there prepared to start dipping their toes in the water again.”
The October 2010 property report was also compiled by foreign exchange company Moneycorp, which reported a decline in overseas property-related money transfers of 13.6% in October 2010 compared with the previous month.
Moneycorp’s private client dealing manager, David Kerns, said: “There were green shoots in the Rightmove statistics, as they do show an increase in the searches of property in the USA.
“This could be due to sterling strengthening against the US dollar throughout October.”
