Investors in Ireland are on course to invest over €10bn in commercial property, according to CB Richard Ellis.

The bulk of that money is being spent on the market in the UK, with the CB Richard Ellis figures indicating that Irish investors spent in excess of €3.5bn in the UK during the first six months of 2006 alone.

Caroline McCarthy, director of overseas investment at CB Richard Ellis, said: "In the first six months of 2006, our research indicates that Irish investors completed 83 investment transactions outside of Ireland, of which 60 were focused in the UK. Outside of the UK and Ireland, Irish investors spent over €1bn on commercial investment properties in the first half of 2006, with Spain, Germany, Belgium, Poland and France accounting for the greatest proportions of this spend.

"Forty-seven percent of the transactions completed outside Ireland by Irish investors in the first half of 2006 have comprised of office properties, thirty-three percent have comprised of retail properties, eleven percent industrial properties and nine percent mixed-use properties."