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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Recently I was asked to decide where to put $1 million in Europe in order to bring later as much as possible profit from the property market. It was very funny because personally I never had so much money in whole my life, but that is another theme.

This story began some weeks ago when a certain Mr.H (I'll hide his real name) unexpectedly sent to me an e-mail. He described himself to me as a student of Business studies who was assigned a project to invest an imaginary $1 million in the international property market in Europe, with short term (two years) and middle term (five years and afterwards) prospects. The project deadline from the school pressed Mr.H so he was very curious to know where to put the money (I could I wish to be in his place).

After some reflection and checking my books of a kind "How to become a millionaire?" I decided to advise him to "invest" in Dublin property. As a security policy I suggested to him to put some money also in the continental part of Western Europe. He wasn't very convinced believing that by the time of finishing his studies the market in Dublin will collapse. If the market in Dublin is as strong as a rock, I told him, then why I would have suggested to him to put any money in security policy?

I don't know whether or not I convinced Mr.H to follow my mind but the fundamental question remains - how long may the Dublin market continue to show signs of such growth - 10-20 percent per year? What is the limit of this phenomenal price increase?

Theoretically there must be a limit, there must be a point at which the buyers will start to withdraw massively their investments. But are we near that point? If we were the students, or investors, assigned to look for the profitable markets, would our investment in Dublin hold until we get a diploma 2-3 years from now?

According to the most recent data (Irish Times - New house price to rise by 10% in Dublin) the growth in Dublin property market still continues. In the first 3 months of 2001 the average price of new houses in western and northern suburbs of the Irish capital has increased by 4 percent and the predictions are that the cost of new houses in Dublin will rise by 10 percent this year.

What may be expected in the near future? If there is logic in the economic process the trend must be positive at least for the next couple of years. The European Central Bank monetary policy (Ireland is a part of the Eurozone) also will be of help for this. The interest rates in the zone will go down perhaps not as much as in the USA but in any way this will assist the market development in Dublin. In the middle term (3-5 years) the development will depend on the evolution from the other side of the Atlantic. If the slowdown in America is short-lived then the market in Ireland won't be affected and the growth will continue in the coming years. If America goes into extended recession that will affect the other major markets and the lack of new investments will hit the Irish market in the years to come.

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