CHINESE investors have launched a massive property spending spree in Dublin city centre.

A group of wealthy investors from the Far East have targeted the area around Parnell Street in the past six months.

 

 

Estate agents told the Irish Sun the Chinese investors are cash buyers and are helping to push prices up in the locality.

They have swooped on developments, including the Ivy Exchange apartment complex.

Buyers range from out-and-out property investors to rich parents buying pads for children who are coming here to study and work.

Amid a bid for Parnell Street to be designated as Dublin’s official Chinatown, estate agents revealed a surge of purchases in the area.

 

 

Charlotte Cowley, of Lisney, told the Irish Sun: “We have certainly seen plenty of Chinese cash buyers over the past three to six months.

“We have sold a lot of apartments in the Ivy Exchange building off Parnell Street. There has been a lot of take-up in that area.

“A number of two-bed apartments have been sold. There were 30 interested parties at an open viewing the other day and 85 per cent of them were Chinese. There are plenty of cash buyers.”

And the Chinese raids have sent prices soaring in the area.

 

 

Cowley said: “Prices are going above their asking prices, by around €25,000.

“There is no doubt that it is having an impact on prices.

“There is a shortage of properties in the area. Two-bed apartments seem to be the biggest interest.

“You have investors and you have parents of students and young people coming here to stay or work.”

New stats from the CSO this week show investors have bought more homes than first-time buyers in almost half of all markets.

Laura Foody, of Knight Frank estate agents, also told of the upsurge in Chinese interest in the Parnell Street area.

She said: “The area is particularly buoyant, there has been considerable Asian interest.

“The Ivy Exchange is a very attractive development. It is central and has a concierge, there are lots of pluses. There has been a lot of Chinese interest.”

Estate agents have described the Ivy Exchange as an “ideal investment opportunity” and say the pads are “perhaps the pick of this type of development situated on the north side of the Liffey”.

The Chinese property splurge comes after more than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for the area to be turned into an official Chinatown.

A number of Asian restaurants on Parnell Street have set up their own website, chinatowndublin.com, publicising their cuisine.

But local traders now believe the area should be marketed by Dublin City Council to boost trade and are calling for a Chinatown arch or gate to be erected.

The petition says: “Parnell Street is where the greatest concentration of the Chinese community in Dublin lives and works.

“The street offers so much. There are Asian shops, restaurants, cultural centres, businesses and communities. Despite all of this we haven’t made the most of it, it is time to fully recognise our Chinatown and give it the boost it needs.”

It is estimated around 70,000 Chinese people live and work in Dublin.

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