With the Irish commercial property market expected to continue to attract international buyers, agents Cushman & Wakefield have moved to strengthen their investment division by hiring Jonathan Hillyer, former managing director of agents HWBC.

He will serve as a director and work alongside the company's head of investments, Kevin Donohue.

Mr Hillyer has mainly acted on the buy side in many key investment deals in recent years including advising Friends First on its recent purchase of the Madrid portfolio in Dublin city centre as well as representing Irish Life on the acquisition of 57/58 Grafton Street.

Cushman & Wakefield managing director Aidan Gavin said that with the overall investment market expected to be of the order of €3 billion in 2017, their decision to expand the investment team was timely.