For many Irish investors, property in China is a bit like the Chinese written language - attractive, interesting, but fiendishly difficult for foreigners to get their heads around.

However, with stock markets still underperforming, China's renminbi currency becoming more flexible and the economy more open, as well as the fact that Western real estate markets are looking a bit toppy these days, canny investors are keen to take a chance on Chinese property.

With a view to helping Irish investors break into the Chinese market, a group of Irish property agents in Beijing and Dublin has set up a company which offers property investments in the Chinese capital.

"Now is the perfect time to invest in the Chinese market," says Patrick Parsons, one of the three founding partners.

"In the past the timing wasn't right. Three or four years ago, Investors in Asia wouldn't have been appropriate and I didn't have the right partners. But now is the perfect time to invest in the Chinese market."

He set up Investors in Asia with partners Andrew Paul, former director of the building group John Paul Construction, who will be based in Dublin, and Paul O'Driscoll, former managing director of local estate agency Sino Link Property, based in Beijing.

Patrick Parsons has been in the property business a long time. He has managed Birr Castle in Co Offaly, his family home; he has worked in New York and Paris, and has been in the business in China for 12 years working for many big property developers.

"At the beginning the market was restricted to foreigners. Now it's opened up and there is strong demand among foreigners, but they don't know how to do it, how to get in," said Parsons.

Back in the 1990s, prices for Beijing property were high, because there was a lack of supply, but in the last three or four years, the large number of apartments being built has knocked the sales price down by about half.

"Since then the price has been steadily increasing," said Parsons.

The standard and quality of Chinese properties is improving and the government has also done much to regulate the market.

Investors in Asia is focused on Beijing's central business district and has already bought one floor of an office block with retail space called Pacific Century Plaza in the city's Sanlitun district.

Although prices have trebled in Shanghai in the past few years, the market is very speculative and Investors in Asia is more interested in Beijing, which it sees as a more stable market.

The readings for the Beijing market are good. Big developers, like Capital Land, are now buying in Beijing, after sniffing around for a long time.

Also, developers are keen to attract foreign buyers and, with the Olympic Games looming in 2008, property in Beijing is looking a good option.

At the same time, for the Irish investor, Beijing seems a long way away.

Investors in Asia also offers after-sales services: it will rent out the properties and help investors to transfer their funds back to Europe. They also help get the "fa piao" receipts that are so essential for taxation purposes.

"Most conservative estimates expect the market to double, but I expect it to treble or quadruple in the next 15 years," said Parsons.

The company offers services to individual investors who want to buy an apartment in the €60,000 to €250,000 range, or to syndicate buyers who are looking at the €5 million to €10 million bracket. For a syndicate the minimum investment will be around €300,000.

Individuals can get up to 70 per cent mortgages, while retail investments can get at most 50 per cent.

"Small investors will feel the same comfort. It's not the end of a flow, it's the beginning of a flow," said Parsons.