That game is the building and selling of residential property in countries as diverse as Bulgaria, Cape Verde and the United States. Although benefiting directly from a booming investment market, these three individuals are not just riding a wave, they are surfing it with panache.

The best-known of the trio is Darragh MacAnthony, whose secret has been always to reinvest every penny back into his company, MacAnthony Realty International. Six years ago he had 6,000. Now his estate agency sells well over 2billion-worth of foreign property each year and has its head office in what was once the home of the mayor of Marbella.

"The Irish are culturally cute operators, " says MacAnthony, who went to school at St Mary's College in Dublin. "We know what we want and we expect results. The Irish are very keen on world affairs and economic trends so they are constantly looking for opportunities in the overseas property market."

Not surprisingly, the Irish are his best clients and the markets in which he operates include Spain, France, Portugal, USA, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. Although emerging markets can be a "logical and lucrative" move for short-term yields, he has some words of caution: "Any company that pitches and sells solely short-term solutions to a client will not survive."

O'Reilly is another young man who has built his company up from scratch, having invested in his first house in Knocklyon when he was 18 he now runs Platinum Developments, the company expected to become the largest developer in Bulgaria in 2007. "I started out as a gym teacher, setting up the Sparta club with gyms all over Dublin. Teaching 2,500 kids a week is a lot . . . so I know quite a lot of kids around Dublin!"

But his success hasn't always been easy.

In 2004 the resort on which he was selling was struggling to reach completion and it looked as though some 200 buyers would lose their investment.

"My 150 buyers were protected by a mortgage I had taken on the site but these other 200 were going to lose out. My lawyer advised me to forget it but for me failure wasn't an option."

O'Reilly decided to take another mortgage to buy the development itself and make sure that it was completed. After brokering a number of tricky deals in Bulgaria and taking a public knock, the development was completed with the assistance of 10 million from O'Reilly. The very same resort has now become the company's flagship development, the five-star Sunset Resort on Sunny Beach.

O'Reilly firmly believes in hard work, education and the environment. He is keen to point out that Bulgarians are "highly educated people, second only to the US for certified professionals per head" and this high literacy level is his "number one reason" for investing in the future of Bulgaria. He has put 1.5 billion into property in Bulgaria alone, 80% via Irish investors; and refreshingly, he is in the process of taking real steps to address green issues surrounding property development.

"Bulgaria reminds me of Ireland 10 or 20 years ago, " he says. "It is really changing times over there. The big American and German multinationals are moving into Sofia and it outperformed Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia last year despite not being in the EU."

While O'Reilly plumps for Bulgaria, another young Irish developer is putting most of his energies into Morocco. Power, still 29, made most of his money on the Spanish coast selling off-plan developments. His company, Prime Developments, has since diversified into the UK, Mexico, the Caribbean and now Morocco, where he says: "The luxury and quality of the build is incredible for the price . . . you can get plots on the beach for 25,000 and villas built for 35,000, and there are direct flights from Dublin. It's going to be the market."

Originally from Enniskerry, Power says that when he started attending property exhibitions at the age of 18 it was a great time to be Irish; there was a lot of money around and the Irish like to buy from the Irish because "tt takes one to know one. The Irish buyer has learnt a lot and they really are driving most of the investment markets.

They know what they want; they want to buy in bulk and they know a good deal when they see it. They know what they want before they start and they don't mind taking risks."

A parting comparison between the three is their closeness to family. MacAnthony works with father Austin and sister Wendy, while O'Reilly has his brother Sean on his books, and Power learnt the overseas property trade from John Power Senior. And the cubs are all very proud of their prides.

>> Guy King is editor of RTE 'House Hunters In The Sun' magazine and will be in attendance at the RTE House Hunters In The Sun Live property exhibition, at the RDS 14-17 April. At the exhibition tv presenter Jim Smyth will host a live chat show and a Bulgarian apartment will be given away to one lucky visitor