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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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Real estate prices are going only in one direction - to the sky. In the last year alone prices and rents for luxurious houses and first class offices in the capital of Dublin nearly doubled. If you want to buy a large house in the capital, get ready to pay some $3000 for a sq.meter (1 sq.meter=10 sq.feet). If you simply try to rent a small condo, then $600 per month will be a great deal for you. It is like the Wall Street ups, the local dealers joked several months ago. But even after the NYSE and Nasdaq entered into a period of painful corrections in March, the Irish real estate market continued to grow.

There is only one thing to worry about in this bright picture - inflation. It was 4.6 percent last year, the highest level among the countries which adopted the Euro, in particular, and in the European Union, in general. Ireland has been overheating and that puts it in line with the American economy. No one could find a way to slow it down and to cool down the real estate market in Ireland and that is the big difference comparing it with the other side of the Atlantic. Ireland is a member of the European Monetary Union which means that decisions on interest rates changes and the currencies exchange rates are made not in Dublin, but in Frankfurt (Germany) at the European Central Bank.

On one hand, Europe needs stronger economic growth, so the European bankers won't dare to suffocate it with much higher interest rates similar to these in the USA. On the other hand, the Irish government lowered taxes in this year budget with some $1 billion. These cuts especially concern the real estate related taxes. So the economic forecasts are brighter than ever and even Irish migrants who return in their homeland after decades abroad find it difficult to settle because of the skyrocketing prices and rents.

There is one additional economic factor that will further inflate the prices on the local real estate market - immigration. Ireland has been known worldwide for more than two centuries for its emigration (people going out of the country) and the problem of immigration (the influx of settlers from outside) is relatively new for its people's mentality. For less than a decade the national economy (with the huge help of the American electronic and software giants like Intel) created more than 600,000 new jobs.

Now the country is booming and it needs at least 200,000 foreign specialists, mostly in the electronic business, to fill the vacant places. If such a wave of foreigners come to the Irish shores (most of the new immigrants are expected to be well-paid specialists), this will further push higher prices and rents on the real estate market.

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Ireland.