According to Jeremy Helsby, chairman and chief executive of Savills, Irish investors spent a total of 15bn on property in the UK and continental Europe in the last five years and were the biggest foreign investors in property in all European countries last year, shelling out over 3.5bn.

With this kind of money swilling about, it should come as no surprise that international operators want to get in on the action.

Savills plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. It also has an alliance with US real estate company Trammell Crow Company.

Over the last five years Savills has increased its turnover from stg £235.4m to £373.9m ( 547m). Pre-tax profits have grown from £21.6m to £58.6m.

For Hamilton Osborne King (HOK), selling the business was the only way to compete with the other foreign- owned firms in the domestic market.

Three years ago, HOK lost its international partner, CB Hillier Parker, who chose to invest instead in Gunne and now wholly owns the commercial property side of that business, trading as CBRE Richard Ellis.

One property insider said that HOK had been finding it difficult to keep pace with other agencies since its association with CB ended. "There is so much demand out there for overseas property, and there was a perception in the industry that the lack of an international partner was hampering HOK's progress, " she said.

As a counterpoint to this view, the agency can point to the fact that 20% of its business is overseas, and that it recorded a pre-tax profit of 7.8m on turnover of 35.7m for the year ended 30 September 2005.

"We will have more than doubled our fee income in the three years to the end of September 2006, " says managing director Paul McNeive.

"The continued expansion of our overseas business has been central to this, and we see this deal as the next logical step for the firm in continuing our international expansion."

Company chairman Aidan O'Hogan said the firm had been looking to form an alliance with an international firm for some time, and was even considering buying a smaller English business, but that "the Savills deal was too good to turn down."

O'Hogan says the key concern now for investors is the lack of choice in the domestic market. "There is clearly a desire to buy properties across the continent, " he says, "but there is also a growing number of developers looking for sites to develop projects. This is an area we will be looking closely at."

He rejects the notion that HOK directors are getting out at the top of the market. "We will be working as hard as ever on the Irish scene and, in fact, will be employing more people in the near future, " he says.

Helsby says Savills believes the Irish economy will continue to perform robustly for at least another five years, and that the property market will remain buoyant as a result. However, it is clear that the main attraction for Savills is the appetite Irish investors are showing for property in the UK and elsewhere.

Helsby doesn't expect much business to be coming the other way. "Foreign buyers find it hard to get a toehold in the Irish market because it is so tightly controlled by local investors and the yields are also too low, " he says.

While Savills have bought HOK outright, Colliers Jackson Stops is retaining a 40% share in its deal with Colliers CRE. TJ Kearns, company secretary, says that holding onto this stake is crucial for the continuing development of the company in Ireland.

While accepting as fair comment the contention that the market is reaching its peak if estate agents are selling, Kearns points out that Colliers CRE has completed due diligence on the property market prior to purchase.

"They are answerable to their shareholders and clearly are confident about the long term prospects of the market, as are we, " he says.

With these two deals, the property industry is becoming increasingly dominated by foreign-owned firms. Both CBRE and Jones Lang La Salle are multinational companies, while the international operator DTZ has a 20% stake in the commercial property arm of Sherry FitzGerald.

A spokesperson for the firm rejected the possibility that DTZ would take any greater stake in the near future. Lisney, too, has ruled out the possibility of a takeover bid from its partner, Cushman and Wakefield.

With intense competition for Irish investors, though, it remains to be seen whether this situation will continue.

TJ Kearns believes that niche operators are likely to be the target of takeover bids sooner rather than later. "The industry is increasingly globalised and, for firms to succeed, they are going to have to form partnerships or be bought out by bigger foreign agencies."

However Ken McDonald of Hooke & McDonald says his firm is delighted to remain fully Irish owned. "We would never contemplate selling to a foreign-owned company, " he says. "It is not because we have anything against them per se, it is just that we prefer having the autonomy to make our own decisions than to be controlled from an office in London or New York. I think, generally speaking, Irish people tend to like dealing with Irish companies."

McDonald says he doesn't see the multinational firms as a threat, but expects them to bring greater innovation to the market. "It is also a sign that, despite some of the foreign critics of the domestic market, there is real confidence in Irish property in the long term.

"I think the true potential of the market will only become apparent in the next 10 years, as the population continues to rise and more jobs are created."