INVESTORS who dabble in the Dublin commercial property market may well be wondering if their usual estate agent has suddenly skipped the country so that they won’t have to face into the drudgery of dealing with the mess left by the avaricious developers and the even greedier bankers.

Relax, the missing estate agents have not lost faith in our beleaguered market but are taking a break in either the US or Berlin where they hope to whip up interest in the vast range of commercial properties about to be sold by Nama. Agents lucky enough to get instructions from the investment funds could end up earning a nice fee if they succeed in buying the property as well as ongoing compensation for managing and renting the building in the future.

A surprisingly large number of American funds are apparently interested in any €100 million-plus investments, but as the yanks are traditionally known as “bottom feeders” you can bet your life they will only jump if they believe they are getting a real bargain.

The European funds, on the other hand, are more aggressive as long as a building has a blue chip tenant and a long lease.

Many of Dublin’s investment agents who attended last week’s Expo Real investment fair in Berlin were left in no doubt that our Government’s ham-fisted attempt to keep rents down could scare off overseas investors. Equally, Nama’s inexcusable delays in putting some of the vast range of Irish properties on the market may mean that they will get nothing like the values at which they bought in the distressed loans. What a mess.