Biggest spender of the week was undoubtedly Dublin timber merchant Donal O'Mahony who shelled out a cool £48 million sterling (IR£63m) for a nine-storey office block near Finnsbury Square in London.

O'Mahony can bank on an initial return of over 7 per cent on the relatively new 78,000 sq ft building at Finnsbury Pavement in EC2, which is leased on a long-term basis to the Swedish-based OM Stock Exchange and Bass Taverns.

The acquisition means he now owns 10 office blocks in London with a total value of well over the £100 million sterling mark. One building alone, bought in 1996 for £4.35m sterling when the market was on the floor, is now worth £13.5m.

Donal has obviously come a long way since he first ventured into the Dublin property market in the mid-1970s, buying a string of bed-sits in Rathmines at what now seems giveaway prices. He later dabbled in the Dublin office market, buying several blocks in the city. One of these, Twilfit House in Abbey Street, was acquired for £1.18m €1.50m) and later sold for £5.7m €7.24m).

Apart from a £10 million €12.70) office block in East Point, he has diverted virtually all his property funds into the London market where the rewards are considerably better. He also finds time along with his brothers to run the family-owned timber merchants, T & J O'Mahony at Ballymount.