Skip to main content

Celtic Tiger Developers Scam...

Celtic Tiger developers trying to scam Nama – Taoiseach

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has declared concerns that developers could be buying back assets seized by Nama at knockdown prices. Mr Kenny said he had some indications that boom-time speculators who could not repay massive loans - now tied to the taxpayer - were attempting to repurchase their properties at their current prices.

Just over a week ago, the state toxic assets agency dismissed allegations repeated by a Fianna Fail senator about the practice.

Mark Daly had claimed the taxpayer was picking up the bill, running into hundreds of thousands of euro, for the plunging loan values while those who borrowed the money regained their properties at a fraction of the original price.

Speaking at the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Cork, Mr Kenny signalled his intention to meet finance minister Michael Noonan about the issue.

"I have had some indications of attempts to acquire property that was taken from developers through a variety of methods," he said.

"I hope that Nama are on top of that, and that where Nama have acquired assets that they don't find their way back to where they were acquired from in the first place."

Mr Kenny said he was "concerned" about the alleged attempts of Celtic Tiger developers using different strategies to take back control of their former property empires.

The Taoiseach added he was very anxious that people make offers to Nama for seized properties so they can be put on the market as soon as possible.

He said this would determine a bottom on the property market.

Nama has refuted the repeated claims by Senator Daly, saying he has produced no proof of the practice when asked.

The senator has accused the agency of not being transparent in its dealings.

He has called for the attorney general to appear before the Seanad on the matter and has questioned why Nama properties are not being publicly auctioned.

Mr Kenny also told the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly the coalition Government was working on a loan guarantee scheme to get Ireland's bailed banks lending again to small businesses.

He said he will press lenders to reveal what loans they are making available to business.

But he declined to give a timeframe for the measures along with the proposed strategic investment bank, agreed as a priority by Fine Gael and Labour when they struck a deal to share power.

"Not everything can be achieved in the first 100 days of office but that is an important element of the programme for government and discussions are ongoing about how best to implement that," he said.

Struggling traders have demanded bailed-out banks "come clean" on the scale of loan refusals after a survey found more than half have been denied vital funding in recent months.

Small businesses claim lenders are returning to their old habits as access to credit plunged to its worst level since the economic crisis began.

Report by Brian Hutton - Irish Independent

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...