FRANCE: The Côte d'Azur, Provençe, Midi-Pyreneés (around Toulouse, Carcassone) and Paris.
Why? Cheap flights, capital growth averaging 15 per cent a year, and it's easy to borrow money in France at interest rates from 2.7 per cent.
Prices From €100,000 for older properties, and from €140,000 for sale-and- leaseback properties (rental income guaranteed for 11 years, owner gets to use property for one or two weeks in the year).
SPAIN
Not the Costa del Sol but areas around Alicante, Murcia, Costa Brava and north of Barcelona.
Why? Familiarity, heat, continuing good value, and cheap flights to Malaga, Alicante, Murcia and Barcelona.
Prices From €130,000 in Murcia and from €180,000 on Costa Brava for two-bed apartments; fully furnished two-beds from €100,000 inland in Alicante.
PORTUGAL
Mainly in the Algarve region and north of Lisbon.
Why? Golf, sun and direct flights to Faro and Lisbon.
Prices From €450,000 for upmarket apartments and townhouses in Quinta do Lago and Vale de Lobo in Vilamoura; from €280,000 for two-bed apartments in Carvoeiro; €195,500 for a one-bed on a golf course north of Lisbon.
FLORIDA Orlando, half-an-hour's drive from Disneyworld.
Why? Heat, regular flights, good exchange rates, highly rentable properties, and the Irish love the Magic Kingdom.
Prices About €300,000 for a four-bed house with a garden and pool, and up to €460,000 for a near-mansion.
TURKEY Altinkum on the southern end of the Aegean coast and Bodrum - at least, up until the recent bombing in Kusadasi.
Why? Familiarity, heat and Incredibly low prices.
Prices From €22,000/€30,000 for two-bed apartments in Altinkum, and from €85,000 for same in more established Bodrum.