(Yicai Global) Nov. 20 -- Ireland has started to attract more property buyers, including Chinese ones, since the neighboring UK's exit from the European Union is looming.

Li Jingli, a co-founder of Smith Immigration & Education Consulting, met with a Chinese client who wanted to stay in Dublin for a long time and send his kids to a local school, Li said to Yicai Global. Soon they found a three-bedroom flat and started bidding. The price rose over 15 percent to EUR865,000 (USD988,400).

The UK reached an agreement with the EU on the specific contents of Brexit on Nov. 13. The Irish embassy in London has received around 45,000 passport applications in the first half of this year, which is almost twice the figure from before the referendum in 2016.

Among other immigrants, Chinese buyers have also popped up. The growth is spurred by families and residential living, said David Browne, the head of new homes in the Irish unit of Savills. The average price for Dublin's new houses, including those under construction, is EUR467,000 and that for each square meter is about EUR6,000 (USD6,860), he added. 

Investment prospects in Dublin's real estate sector are only second to that in Lisbon in Portugal and Berlin in Germany, according to data from auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, released earlier this month.

The reason is partly due to the fact that the 2008 financial crisis hit the country's property developers so despite population growth, new houses were not built, said Nina who used to work for a British property fund in the UK. 

Housing prices in Ireland have grown 8 percent on average each year since the lows of 2012, Browne said. In August, these prices rose 6.1 percent, according to public data.

In 2014, one of Nina's friends spent millions of euros to invest in a small hotel with more than 100 rooms in the suburbs of Dublin. The annual return of investment is 5 percent, when comparing to the original price, Nina said. 

Editor: Emmi Laine