The sum represents the largest-ever investment by an Irish company into China and is one of the largest foreign property investments ever made in China.

In a striking example of the growing worldwide association of the Irish with big property deals, negotiators for both the buyer and the seller are, in fact, Irish.

Representing the seller was Patrick Parsons, the son of Lord Ross of Birr and a director of the Irish company Investors in Asia (IIA).

Parsons, who has lived in Beijing for 15 years, speaks fluent Mandarin and has a child there with his Chinese wife, negotiated the deal and introduced Treasury Holdings to trhe developer.

"With Patrick's background, having made 14 years' worth of contacts among Beijing's major developers, the deal was not that different from doing business in Dublin, " said IIA director Andrew Paul.

"It's about who you know."

Final Chinese government approval is imminent, said Paul.

It is unlikely, but possible, that part of the development's cement will come from the plant in Heilongjiang province in northeast China that on Friday welcomed its official new owners, Irish materials giant CRH.