Forget log cabins says HOK director Ronan O'Driscoll - buy in Toronto. His agency has been selling properties in Canada's business capital for the past two years, and he believes that for investors, it's a market that offers security and good value.

"Toronto is like any major North American city," he says, "with all the major banks and big corporations located there, and a strong rental market." It may not have the status of New York, which appeals to a lot of Irish investors, "but it's less than half the price. You can get a one-bed apartment in downtown Toronto for €160,000 - show me where in Ireland you can get that kind of value?" Capital appreciation may be more dramatic in other markets, but for steady, safe growth and good returns, he thinks Toronto is hard to beat. O'Driscoll is not tempted by rural properties, whether in easily accessible Muskoka, and remote-yet-popular resorts in Canadian provinces as far apart as Newfoundland in the east and Alberta, out west. But a surprising number of English and Irish buyers are. Agents like O'Driscoll recommend that overseas buyers make a clear distinction between a holiday home and an investment property. But it seems the combination of wide open spaces, snow sports in winter and hot lakeside summers, is what appeals to Irish/English investors who want to holiday as well as invest in Canada.

The fact that it's a stable market , English-speaking (mostly), has property laws like our own, and a good exchange rate seems to make up for the fact that some of the places on the market are fairly hard to get to from here.