Skip to main content

Ghost Estates To Social Housing Estates...

State to rent Nama properties for social housing...

The government plans to rent thousands of vacant houses and apartments from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and use them for social housing.

Representatives of the new ‘bad bank’ have held meetings with officials in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to explore the possibility of renting out properties that would otherwise lie empty.

Housing minister Michael Finneran said his officials were seeking to ensure a ‘‘social dividend’’ from Nama by renting residential units on long-term leases for social housing purposes.

Finneran said an arrangement could help to deliver ‘‘a return in line with Nama’s mandate’’.

The government is under pressure to demonstrate to the European Commission that Nama will be capable of generating significant ongoing cash flows over its lifetime, and that the new agency will not be excessively generous to participating banks.

While a move to rent properties for social housing would generate income for Nama, it could be controversial, as it would mean that tax revenues were being used to pay rents to the agency.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan told the Dáil last year that Nama would aim to generate a profit and that such an outcome would be achievable in certain circumstances. However, critics argued that the minister’s assumptions were too optimistic and based on forecasts of ongoing income streams and a recovery in property values that were unlikely to be realised.

‘‘From a social housing perspective, I see clear potential for real and meaningful synergies between the work of Nama in ensuring the stability of the financial system, and the role of my department in responding to social housing need," said a statement from Finneran.

He said the provision of social housing by local authorities was moving towards ‘‘more flexible delivery mechanisms’’ that included long term leases and the rental accommodation scheme.

He said the government favoured this approach over the traditional model of building or acquiring homes for social housing purposes.

Research published earlier this month by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, which is based at NUI Maynooth, estimated the number of empty houses and apartments at more than 300,000. A large number of those are likely to transfer to Nama.


Report by David Clerkin and Ian Kehoe - Sunday Business Post

Popular posts from this blog

More Allsop Fire Sales...

Allsop plans five fire sales a year... THE UK auction house Allsop and its Irish affiliate Space plans to hold up to five distressed property auctions a year following the success of its first auction last Friday when 81 out of 82 lots were sold for a total of €15 million. The next auction is scheduled for July 7th, when 200 lots will be auctioned, including apartments, tenanted shops, farms and houses. According to Space director Stephen McCarthy, his company is being inundated with requests from receivers, banks and individuals who want to sell their property fast. Many of the properties in Friday’s auction were sold by Bank of Scotland Ireland and it’s believe there is plenty more of this stock to sell. These include apartments in the Castleforbes development in the Dublin docklands, as well as units in Dublin 8 and in Castleknock. However, the agency is also considering taking on more agricultural land. One lot, a 55 acre farm in Co Wickow sold particularly well, making €42...

As Featured On Dublin Postcards, Ad's, U2 Video...

I see in the Irish Independent today an item concerning a favourite, Dublin landmark, of mine... "THEY have featured in numerous postcards and a very famous Guinness ad, but perhaps their most important cameo appearance came when they featured in U2s 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)' video. However, Dublin City Council does not believe the Poolbeg chimneys are iconic enough to place on their Record of Protected Structures. Following a request from Cllr Dermot Lacey (Lab) to have the landmark ESB chimneys placed on the protected record, city councillors heard that city planners had conducted a survey, history and full assessment of the chimneys. They concluded from this that while the Poolbeg chimneys were considered to be of a certain level of architectural, social and historical significance, they were not of sufficient value within the meaning of the Planning and Development Act, 2000. Complex The twin red and white chimney stacks measure 680 feet in height and were construc...

Property Ireland - Irish Land Values Go Up Like A Rocket & Fall Like A Stone...

Land values go up like a rocket and fall like a stone... SITE EVALUATION: Why would a developer bid €225,000 an acre in 1999 and €2.8m an acre in 2007? Bill Nowlan explains WHY HAS THE value of development land fallen so precipitously, by over 50 per cent in the past 12 months, when residential and other property values have only fallen by 25 per cent or 30 per cent? There is an old property cliché which says that "land values go up like a rocket and fall like a stone" and this seems to have been bourne out in Ireland over recent years. Why does this happen? To answer this question requires an insight into the way developers prepare their bids for development land and I set out below a glimpse into that process. Let me start by looking at how a developer in normal times estimates his bid for a plot of land with planning permission, which in estate agents' parlance is ready-to-go. The key starting point in a developers equations is the expected sale price of the finished b...