Talk to John Mulligan for more than five minutes and the conversation will inevitably turn to Romania. Helping at-risk children in this country is a priority for the overseas property agent, who's ethical approach encompasses just about everything he does.

So much so that a royalty from each sale he completes is donated to the Aurelia Trust, an Irish organisation that looks after abandoned children in Eastern Europe. Lobbying the European Parliament to put pre-conditions on Romania's EU membership is his current project.

"Our basic rule is that anything we would not be prepared to buy ourselves, we won't recommend," says Mulligan, who trusts that "one day, all business will be done this way".

It's not surprising that Mulligan's new overseas property website, www.abodes.ie, has a section on ethics. A former associate of Maynooth firm Overseas Property Investment, he has a shortlist of countries where he won't sell, whatever the inducement.

Take Bulgaria, heavily promoted as "the new Spain" and temptingly cheap. That's all very well, but 10 to 12 weeks of summer doesn't add up to a sound investment, in his opinion. That's if you can find tenants with all the development going on. "Spain is the new Spain," he adds.

He believes human rights abuses in Turkey makes buying property here an unethical choice, so Turkey is taboo unless things improve. Dubai? Uncertain land title and the absolute power of the ruling family to enforce decrees on a whim means this is a risky investment, he says.

Land taken from Greek Cypriots during the Turkish invasion could threaten ownership here too he says. Then there's Croatia, where in some cases ethnic cleansing could have been involved in property acquisition. He is also dubious about property anywhere with a "so-called" guaranteed rental unless a genuine agreement is in place with future tenants.