Ireland’s hot property market is a sign of health

UNDER THE plane trees by the Grand Canal, the din of diggers drowns out the screech of seagulls. When gleaming new offices rise from the rubble, LinkedIn will take up residence. A short walk away by the canal dock, Google, which already employs 8,000 Dubliners, is building three towers and converting old flour mills. Facebook plans to leave the water for a campus with room for 7,000 in Ballsbridge, a posh central district that now houses AIB, a bank.

The tech giants’ thirst for space is one sign of Ireland’s economic rebound from the chaos of a decade ago. A wild, credit-fuelled property boom collapsed, leaving a glut of homes in the wrong places, banks heading for nationalisation and the state—which in September 2008 gave guarantees to the banks’ creditors—heading for a bail-out from the EU and the IMF. It finally emerged from recession in 2012.