Daft Property - Irish Property News

Nama may be forced to deliver on social housing... THE GOVERNMENT is considering plans to amend legislation that would oblige the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to deliver more social housing and public amenities. Nama, created to purge banks of toxic property loans, has purchased some €31 billion of loans connected to thousands of residential properties – loans valued at over €72 billion at the height the property bubble. There is frustration in some circles of Government that the agency is not under any formal obligation to provide a “social dividend”. Minister for Housing Willie Penrose is understood to have written to the Attorney General in recent weeks seeking clarity on how Nama’s terms of reference could be changed to give it a broader remit that goes beyond securing the best achievable financial return for the State. Officials fear the agency is too focused on its commercial remit to generate profits and feel the State is at risk of losing out on opportuniti...

The 10 new rules for first-time buyers... 100 per cent mortgages are gone, so are long-term loans – and the easily-flipped starter home is a thing of the past... WITH HOUSE prices down by as much as 50 per cent, property has never looked as affordable – or has it? While prices may have plummeted, people’s incomes have also been slashed, due to a combination of higher taxes, pay cuts and the disappearance of discretionary income such as bonuses, while getting a mortgage has become more difficult as banks tighten up their lending practices. Nevertheless, the collapse in prices means that first-time buyers are slowly coming back to the market. But what lessons should they have learnt from the crisis? 1 ASKING PRICE NOT SALE PRICE What’s a house or an apartment actually worth these days? In the absence of official sale price data and with estate agents prevented from publishing prices (house prices are covered by the Data Protection Act) it is difficult to find out what is is really happen...

House buyers were given 100pc loans during crash... Irish banks agreed to provide 100pc mortgages to one-in-four young first-time buyers last year despite a collapse in the property market. Thousands entering the property market for the first time took out mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of over 95pc with up to 5,000 taking out the 100pc housing loan. The Department of the Environment's Housing Bulletin 2008 also revealed that the average age of those who successfully obtained a 100pc mortgage was 31 years. These loans were taken out for between 31 and 35 years, which would indicate that people would be paying back the cost of their home until they retire. Banning Earlier this year, the Financial Regulator said it was considering banning 100pc mortgages and restricting lenders offering homebuyers loans greater than three times their annual salaries. This followed the publication of a report by the British financial regulator which said there was a case for limiting the size of ...