Property consultancy firm Extra Sales is to create 25 new jobs over the next two years, following increased demand from Russian investors looking to purchase Irish-owned properties abroad.

Among the positions to be filled, six are immediate and range from administration to sales management roles across a variety of countries, including China, Bulgaria, Turkey, Spain and Russia.

"While the six immediate positions are abroad, they are open for Irish people to apply. The remaining 19 jobs will be based in Ireland but would involve travel to Turkey and Bulgaria," Extra Sales managing director Colin Horan said.

Russian market
Founded at the height of the boom in 2006, the firm originally specialised in selling Bulgarian properties to Irish people. However, like the thousands of Irish who purchased homes and villas abroad, it also nearly became a victim of the property crash, changing tack in 2008 to target the Russian market.

“We started selling properties in Bulgaria to Irish people, but during the downturn in 2008, the Irish came back to us wanting to offload the properties so we had to find a new market to resell them.”

The firm now bridges the gap between the increasing number of Irish people looking to dispose of overseas property and cash-rich Russians looking to develop their portfolios in Bulgaria and Turkey.

It has sold a number of Irish-owned villas in Spain and Bulgaria with prices ranging from €38,000 to €480,000 and expects to reach 360 sales by the year-end, up from 196 in 2012. It has also has entered negotiations to sell an Irish-owned Spanish hotel to Russian investor for €2 million.

It is also one of the few property companies that have grown during the recession, experiencing a 25 per cent rise in demand for Irish-owned foreign properties, particularly in Bulgaria, Turkey, Spain and Portugal over the past 12 months.

“Two years ago, we had just three people employed. Now we have 12 and will be increasing that to 37.”