Daft Property - Irish Property News

The Irish economy is set to repeat its old mistake of excess mortgage-lending... The run-up to Christmas is always a good time for burying bad news and this year was no different. On the Friday before Christmas, Bank of Ireland announced it was going to have to put more money aside to absorb possible losses on Irish residential mortgages. Just how much more money was not very clear but it would appear to run into several hundred million euro. The statement was extremely technical and did not actually talk about losses or defaults. But the point is clear. The bank had already put aside some money to absorb losses that might occur as a result of people not being able to pay their mortgages. It now seems that more people than expected are going to default and the bank has had to put some extra money aside. It is as timely a reminder as you could hope for that the Irish banks are still broken and still fighting their way through a mountain of problem mortgages as a result of their rec...

State bad loans agency NAMA has decided for the first time to demolish a derelict apartment block it owns. The apartment block -- in the Gleann Riada estate on the outskirts of Longford town -- comprises 12 unsold units that are in disrepair. It is understood another half a dozen NAMA-controlled ghost estates will be knocked down before the end of the year as the loans agency returns half-built houses and apartments to green areas. NAMA controls about 280 unfinished developments, some 10pc of the total. Local Fine Gael councillor Peggy Nolan said the Gleann Riada development was "Longford's Priory Hall", referring to the apartment complex in north Dublin that had to be evacuated last year due to shoddy building work. Residents of the Longford estate have staged a long campaign to have their development properly completed. The unoccupied apartment block at the entrance to the development has also been vandalised. There are 90 houses on the estate on Strokestown Road that ...

200,000 homes may need to be bulldozed -- bank AN explosive report has claimed that Ireland has so many empty houses that it would take up to 43 years to fill them all. Deutsche Bank figures suggest that there are 289,451 empty houses in Ireland, including almost 60,000 vacant holiday homes. This represents a vacancy rate of 15 per cent. As the Deutsche Bank map shows, the empty properties are highly concentrated around the Atlantic coast with Kerry and Donegal particularly badly afflicted. This glut of empty homes will have a major impact on future property prices. "Demand for housing is the key factor as to how long it will take for this oversupply to be reduced, and aside from demand for second homes the key driver should be population growth," Deutsche Bank notes. Based on 2011 figures which showed population growth of just 13,000, and the average number of residents per house, the bank estimates that it could take until 2055 for the glut of houses to be worked through...

The legacy of the boom and the subsequent property collapse have come home to roost in 2012. This is the year the Nama deferred payment scheme was launched, a ghost estate was sold at a distressed property auction, and the country’s most expensive property failed to sell despite a 74 per cent price drop. Here are 10 properties that sum up where we are now ... 1. Walford, Shrewsbury Road Now that the madness of the property boom is a distant memory, it has become apparent that not only was Walford on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin 4 never worth the €58 million paid for it in 2005, it has failed to find a buyer for it, even at the radically reduced price of €15 million. The Edwardian house on 1.8 acres went on the market in September 2011 but was recently withdrawn, presumably because it failed to meet the guide price. When it was sold in 2005, the cachet of the road and the development potential drove rich individuals into a frenzy, pushing the price substantially ove...

No magic bullet for banks' property crisis... It is going to take more than a decade to unwind the excess property assets financed by the banks during the noughties THE BANKS in Ireland, including IBRC and Nama, have more than €30 billion of Irish loans relating to property which they need to unwind over the next five to seven years in order to meet the Basel capital adequacy requirements and also repay the temporary ECB loan support. This unwinding process has started by the sale of overseas assets and loan books but is mainly outstanding in Ireland. Can this deleverage be achieved? What will be the timescale and what will be the nature of the property market during the process? Should the Government provide further help to the industry? These are key questions for all close to the banking and property industries. In a comprehensive discussion note* I have tried to join the dots of the many intertwining factors. I have drawn on two recent studies on the overall European property ...

The property dilemma -- to sit tight or cut your losses? It's a dilemma hitting thousands -- especially young couples living in apartments. What do they do -- sell now or hold on? Many of them were frightened on to the bottom rung of the property ladder and now find themselves in a home which is too small for their needs. They are asking themselves if they should take the hit on negative equity, and buy a house which can accommodate a growing family. And even if they do, where will they get the money to buy another property? A few years ago, many had held on in the hope of a soft landing, but now are wondering whether they should bite the bullet and jump. Already price falls of 40pc to 50pc have made family houses much more affordable. However, many couples who sell an apartment that they bought in the boom could find that the sale price is far less than the amount they owe to the bank. Banks are slow to allow them to sell, trade up and carry over the negative equit...

Nama 'perks' for builders add to sense of injustice Developers enjoying allowances on top of huge salaries -- and all at taxpayers' expense... DEVELOPERS who work for Nama will be entitled to claim expenses and may even stay in their palatial homes as they draw salaries ranging from €70,000 to €200,000, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Confirmation of the generous allowances being given by the State's so-called 'bad bank' is sure to provoke fresh anger from a public reeling from the revelation by Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh last Wednesday that his agency has approved salaries of €200,000 for two of its biggest developers. Appearing before the Dail's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr McDonagh also confirmed Nama's intention to approve salaries ranging from €70,000 to €100,000 a year for between 110 and 120 developers on its books before the end of this year. Confirmation of the multimillion euro pay bill has unsurprisingly been met...

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...

Coalition alarm at Nama property scheme... THERE IS concern within the Government that plans by the National Asset Management Agency to encourage the purchase of thousands of residential properties could artificially inflate the property market. The agency wants to introduce a scheme where it would waive 20 per cent of the purchase price of a home on its books if values were to fall further over the next five years. Nama has suggested the scheme could eventually apply to 5,000 houses and apartments. However, internal briefing material reveals fears within the Department of the Environment that the move would artificially inflate the market before it has hit bottom. It could also prevent homebuyers from realising their homeownership aspirations by preventing prices falling further. Nama is hoping to launch its "deferred purchase" scheme on a trial basis later this year by arranging the sale of about 750 homes. The agency does not need Government approval for the ...

NAMA under fire for failing to help house poor people. ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan is embroiled in a row with NAMA over whether the agency is doing enough to house poor people. The minister said he was unhappy with the toxic assets agency for not selling properties under its control at a discount to his department. These could then be used to house those on council housing waiting lists. But the department was unable yesterday to identify specific areas in need of social housing where NAMA had a stockpile of suitable properties. And NAMA has no specific legal obligation to help to resolve the social housing problem. The law setting up the agency says that one of its purposes is "to contribute to the social and economic development of the State". But there is no mention about handing over specific numbers of properties for social housing. So far just 58 apartments in the Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford, which had been in NAMA, have been purchased by a volun...

The Nama factor is about to be tested this Saturday with the launch of 13 apartments in Belarmine, Stepaside on Dublin’s southside. This will be the first of Castlethorn Construction’s housing developments to be sold by Nama and the first significant Nama disposal of new homes on Dublin’s southside. The new homes are in Belarmine Hall (below) and Belarmine Plaza. Sherry FitzGerald has been appointed the selling agent and is quoting minimum reserves from €119,950 for the four one-bed apartments, reserves from €159,950 for a pair of three-bed apartments and from €189,950 for six three-bed units. By “minimum reserve” they mean don’t bother trying to haggle the prices downwards at the launch. About 30 of the units were sold in early 2009 when prices for two beds were €200,000-€250,000. The apartments are fully finished with appliances and BER certs and come with a designated parking space per apartment. Ivan Gaine of Sherry FitzGerald says the launch will be a good test of the mark...

The hangover of Ireland's property boom: Abandoned ghost estates and lifeless houses stripped of their worth... Anyone against debt forgiveness should read this dispatch from a ghost estate... and thank God it's them instead of you... Rhoda Brogan stands at the front door of her three-bed semi, quietly surveying the abandoned, lifeless houses that surround her. In the centre of the estate there is a green area, wildly overgrown with weeds and nettles and circled by a cracked road and street lights that don't work. It is eerily calm; there are no cars driving around, no children playing - the only sound is the wind. All of a sudden, Rhoda’s eyes narrow and focus on an abandoned home directly across the road and she considers something for a moment before noticing the open windows. ‘Oh my God! Someone has got into that house since I left this morning,’ she says, quickly crossing the street with her four-year-old daughter, Saoirse, in tow. Around the back of the em...

Nama might prove 'laboratory' for EU, leaked cable said... THE FIANNA Fáil-Green government considered the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) “might prove to be a laboratory” for other European Union states faced with banks on the brink of collapse, according to the latest batch of diplomatic communications published by Wikileaks. Ireland’s permanent Ambassador to the EU, Rory Montgomery, made the comment to the US ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, at a meeting in Brussels in September 2009. Mr Montgomery revealed the EU “was watching closely” the establishment of Nama. At the same meeting he said that year’s budget would focus on cuts in public sector pay. The cable reports Mr Montgomery’s view was that “Ireland [was] paying too many civil servants too much to provide public services that could be provided for much less.” Mr Rooney met EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy on the same trip. Mr McCreevy had advised the Fianna Fáil-Green coalition to act quickly in es...

Taxpayers are forking out more than €1 million per year on bills such as electricity, gas, security and insurance to keep the lights on at the unfinished €170 million Kilternan Hotel and Country Club in Co Dublin. Irish Nationwide, under former chief executive Michael Fingleton, lent publican Hugh O’Regan €170 million to develop the hotel, but he ran out of money before it was finished. The project went into receivership in 2009. The receiver’s reports show that, over a 12-month period, the unfinished and empty hotel cost €270,000 to insure, €80,000 in ESB bills, €85,000 in gas bills to heat and €155,000 on security. There was also €200,000 spent on consultants, a further €110,000 on legal fees and €71,000 in receiver fees. The company filings show that the firm behind the ill-fated development received more than €1 million from the state-owned Irish Nationwide during the period to meet these ongoing costs. Its sole revenue is €30,000 in rental income. The receiver to Dashaven ...

NAMA's fire sales show cruel reality... WHEN NAMA put for sale signs on hundreds of the properties in its extensive portfolio last week, it gave a glimpse of the abyss into which the Irish property market has fallen. But it really was no more than that - a mere glimpse into the as yet uncharted depths of a catastrophe that has the potential to devour the country's economy and impose penury on the population. On Thursday, NAMA announced its first set of annual accounts, which showed the ' bad bank' made a loss of €1.18 billion - that's one thousand and eighteen million - last year. The good news though is that it's mostly a 'paper' loss - we might not really be down by that much, it just depends on how the property market fares over the next few years. Given that the value of property in Ireland declined by a massive 2.1 per cent in July alone, there's not much reason to be overly optimistic there though. At the same time as announcing its annua...

Nama proposes negative equity scheme... Nama is proposing a deferred payment scheme to protect property buyers against the risk of negative equity in an attempt to kick-start the property market. The agency wants to introduce a scheme where Nama would waive 20 per cent of the purchase price on one of its 8,000 Irish residential properties after five years if the property were to fall further in value. Customers will deal with the banks on the scheme and will have no engagement with Nama. Chairman Frank Daly said the agency was in talks with the Minister for Finance and the Department of the Environment about the agency’s proposals. “We are teasing this through. We want to analyse the full impact of it and we would hope to make an announcement early after the summer,” he said at the launch of the agency's 010 annual report. The State loans agency, set up to take the most toxic assets out of the banking system, has loans on its books linked to 12,000 houses and apartments...

Taxpayer beware as Nama makes spectacular loss. Loss-making Nama has become a seemingly endless gravy train. Worse still, it has emerged as a bailout for some of the same developers who have brought this country to its knees... When it was announced by then Finance Minister Brian Lenihan during his emergency budget speech in April 2009, we were told it would get credit moving, we were promised it would not be a bailout for developers, we were told it wouldn't be a gravy train for advisers, consultants and public sector fat cats and we were told it would make a profit. Set up to save the country from the greed and recklessness of the banks and developers, including Liam Carroll, Bernard McNamara and Sean Dunne, Nama was an unprecedented development in Irish history. But, more than two years on from its inception, there is no question on all of these fronts: Nama has failed and failed spectacularly, and the taxpayer should be very concerned indeed. As last Thursday's an...

Web jam as 10,000 download list of NAMA properties... NAMA'S list of property for sale was downloaded by 10,000 people in just a day and a half as bargain hunters scoured the list for cheap deals. A spokesman for toxic debt agency NAMA revealed last night that it was forced to make emergency changes to its website in order to cope with the unprecedented web traffic. It came after NAMA made a list of 850 properties it is selling through receivers available for the first time. The list features property in 25 of the 26 counties as well as Northern Ireland and the UK. The assets listed include everything from car park spaces and bedsits, through to family homes and significant commercial and industrial assets. NAMA is not directly selling any of the property but its 150 staff have been inundated with enquiries since the list went live, sources at the agency said. NAMA is now looking at ways to make the property list easier for the public to access. It also intends to u...

NAMA fire sales aim to breathe life back into market... Thousands chase property at knockdown prices as NAMA puts houses, farms, pubs and apartments up for sale. BARGAIN hunters came out in force yesterday after bad bank NAMA put nearly 1,000 properties up for sale in the largest single sell-off in the history of the State. The prospect of picking up a farm, pub, quarry, three-bed semi, hotel, apartment -- even an airport -- sparked an unprecedented wave of interest within hours of the list being published. NAMA chiefs even promised to finance some of the sales as the agency announced losses of €1.18bn on dealings for last year. It also revealed the extent to which NAMA is to recover money from reluctant debtors. In one case -- and as late as this week -- it seized jewellery worth €200,000 that had been given to a developer's partner. NAMA bosses insisted they were not running a fire sale and kept asking prices and bids received a closely guarded secret last night. Bu...

Luxury flats to be set aside for social housing... THEY once had a price tag of almost €1.5m each but now a set of luxury apartments nestled in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains are being sold for an average of just €177,500. And instead of attracting Celtic Tiger cubs, some of the high-end dwellings are being set aside for social housing. A total of 58 apartments in the Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford, which are in NAMA, have been purchased by the voluntary housing body Cluid. The apartments, which were built at the height of the boom, have views over Dublin and are serviced by the M50 and the Luas. Receiver They were bought from a receiver appointed by NAMA to the development company Landmark Enterprises. It is the first such deal between NAMA and a voluntary body and will see 34 of the apartments going to people on the social housing list for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown local authority. The remaining 24 will be rented through the private market. Three-quarters of th...