Assuming that the UK does eventually leave the European Union, Ireland will become the largest English speaking country in the EU. In this article we will look at the investment case for Irish residential property and whether the country will be a direct beneficiary of Brexit.

However, there is already a fundamental demographic shift taking place in Europe that we have mentioned before in PIN that will likely see Ireland's population continue to rise in the coming years. The overwhelming movement within the continent is for the population to migrate further north and further west. With the exception of Iceland, which actually decided in March 2015 that it did not want to join the EU, Ireland is probably as far northwest as you can move within Europe.

There are three main reasons for this movement. It is cooler, safer and wealthier. Whether you call it 'global warming' or 'climate change' few can deny that the planet is getting hotter. For example, at the time of writing (7th of September), Spain was recording temperatures in excess of 45c in Seville and Cordoba, which was the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in Europe in September…EVER! In May this year, India also recorded its hottest temperature EVER at 51c. Both within and beyond Europe, the further south and east you go the hotter it is getting and within a few years it is likely that Spain will be reaching 50c and India 55c etc.

Aside from the stifling heat, a lack of rainfall in Spain led farmers to warn local government in early-September that they are weeks from the disaster of losing all of their crops. Local governments in Spain are now fighting amongst each other for access rights to the precious few dams that can be used to channel water to farms in their region. There are no such water shortages in northwest Europe.