Daft Property - Irish Property News

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...

Year of the great smash and grab raid -- by the banks... IF THERE is one thing you can bank on, it is that 2010 will go down as the year of the great bank robbery. Usually the raiders take money from the bank. But in the case of this bank job, the ones who have had their cash torn away from them in an audacious smash and grab raid are consumers. Banking was once a byword for trust, but today's Irish bankers are a sorry lot. They now have their hands out, begging for a bail-out. Unfortunately, we have no choice other than to stump up and fund their losses from lunatic loans that were advanced with abandon to developers and others during the boom. We are set to learn today exactly how many billions of euro will be required to be pumped into the banks in order to bring them back to health. But it is almost certain that the State will end up as the majority owner of AIB and Irish Nationwide, along with significant stakes in Bank of Ireland and EBS Building Society. And these banks and ...

Nama will bankrupt us for generations... The Government isn't just passing bad laws, it's putting us all in an economic strait-jacket.. . First, it's necessary to use this space to defend the banks. Over the past week, much of the criticism thrown at senior bankers was unmerited, and it would be unfair not to acknowledge that. It's a dirty job, defending those greedy bastards, but someone's got to do it. I can promise that normal service will be resumed shortly (within a few paragraphs, to be honest -- at which point we'll try to understand why we're now up to our chins in the rising tide of faeces that is Nama). The bankers got a bad rap because one bank, Permanent TSB ("The Bank That Likes to Say Feck Off"), increased interest rates. Other banks acknowledged they have similar intentions. Screams of horror issued from the media and politicians. Oh, dear -- it seems the banks are refusing to operate as social utilities. As though they believe that ...

NAMA: The €90bn gamble Sweeping powers for 'bad bank' 1,400 loans from 50 top developers THE Government last night gave its 'bad bank' sweeping powers over developers and judges as it unleashed a €90bn plan to rescue banks and kickstart the economy. But Finance Minister Brian Lenihan admitted it could take up to 30 years for the new National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to sort out the toxic bank assets. The State will effectively become one of the biggest property owners in the world as NAMA is granted extensive powers to take over land and development projects from borrowers who are not keeping up with their repayments. Among the more controversial provisions in the proposed new legislation -- described by Fine Gael as a massive gamble -- is a radical series of rules and procedures to ward off legal attacks that could be disastrous for taxpayers. But the plans, which include limited appeals to the Supreme Court and a clampdown on injunction proceedings, have alarmed...

Government to publish Nama legislation today... The Government will today publish legislation setting up the controversial National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the State’s new toxic assets agency. The €90 billion “bad bank” scheme will use Government bonds to buy property loans at a discount from banks, which will then be able to cash the bonds with the European Central Bank. The draft legislation will be published at 5pm today on the Department of Finance website, but the Government intends to amend it next month when it is debated by the Oireachtas. The complex draft laws run to 150 pages and contains more than 200 sections. Nama will operate under the aegis of the National Treasury Management Agency. Banks will have one chance to appeal the price put on their loans by Nama to “a valuations panel”, which will advise the Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan, but the final decision will be his, the Department of Finance has said. Officials expect that loans to the 50 largest property ...

Does this finally mean bye-bye to Bertieland? Just because Brian Cowen et al are proclaiming the end of crony capitalism doesn't mean it's dead yet... They do things differently in Sweden. Up there, they pull together in crisis. They show a united face to the outside world when the chips are down. They are ideal candidates for a social solidarity pact. Out here on the far side of Bertieland, we don't have the stomach for such happy-clappy stuff. On Wednesday, Brian Lenihan announced details for the National Asset Management Agency, or, if you will, the bad bank. This agency will take control of the property assets in the country's main banks, thus freeing up the banks to lend money to businesses. The book value of the assets, most of which are toxic, is estimated at €80bn to €90bn. Nobody knows the real value of the assets because at the moment, as nothing is selling, there is no market in which to put a price on them. The process is designed to clean up the horrendous ...