Daft Property - Irish Property News

Property Council to sue State, banks over collapse: AN ORGANISATION representing property investors and developers is to take a class action in the High Court against the Government, the Financial Regulator and the banks over their roles in the collapse of the property market. The Irish Property Council (IPC) is to outline its plans today for the court proceedings which will set out to apportion responsibility for the collapse. It says the ruination of the property market has been caused “by the reckless lending of our banks, lack of regulation by our Government and the disregard of prudent advice on fiscal policy by the Government in power”. The council is to invite developers, house purchasers or investors who are now “total casualties of the collapse” to put forward their names for the court action and a claim for compensation. The IPC was set up last year to provide support for small builders, developers and investors who have run into financial difficulties following the...

Householder to carry heavy can for errant banks... HOUSEHOLDERS will be hammered. That is the clear message from the four-year austerity plan issued yesterday by the Government. In plain language, if you own a home, have a pension and a son or daughter in college, you will end up more than €4,600 a year worse off by the time all of the changes in this plan have been implemented. Many of the changes will impact early on in the four-year plan, putting additional pain on family budgets. Middle Ireland is set to pay an extortionate price for the failures of our banks, our regulators and the Government. And significantly, there are no measures in the four-year plan to levy the errant banks. Instead, homeowners will bear the brunt. Personal finance experts last night warned the taxes, levies and charges would push many families over the edge financially. The downturn has left many consumers just one bill away from financial collapse. The severe measures in the four-year plan could be enough ...

They're all away as we face Greek-style crisis Immediate action needed on debt, but Dail won't cut short holidays... THE Government is to leave the political apparatus of the State on holiday throughout September -- even though there is growing concern that the country could face a Greek-style crisis before the end of the year. Widespread bewilderment was aroused in high finance circles last week by the publication of photographs of the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, playing golf the day after Ireland's sovereign debt was downgraded again. In what is seen as an example of ill-judged timing, Mr Cowen played golf in Connemara on Wednesday with other seemingly carefree TDs and senators, who still have four weeks of a two-month summer break to go. But while the Oireachtas is in repose, enjoying a longer than usual break, the financial markets are in overdrive and are now evidently training their sights on Ireland with the apparent intention of again testing the resolve of the EU later...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai...

"Citizens at the frontline are way down the list: the priority remains sorting out the banks to the best satisfaction of the banks"... When times are tough, choices must be made, priorities laid out. Last week, a film screened at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival showed what happens when such priorities pay scant attention to lives lived at the frontline of recession. Meeting Room is a documentary charting the rise and fall of the Concerned Parents Against Drugs (CPAD) movement. CPAD was formed in 1982 to tackle the problem of drugs in inner city Dublin, where dealing and injecting were as common as little boys kicking football on the street. CPAD began with a meeting in Hardwicke Street, attended by, among others, Jesuit priest Jim Smyth. Pretty soon a plan of action was devised. Dealers would be asked to attend meetings of residents where they would be told to desist or leave the area immediately. If the dealers didn't show, the assembled marched on the off...

It's time to shout 'stop' -- NAMA is grand larceny... The land has reverted to the price you'd get from a farmer for putting a donkey out to graze on it For the past year, this column has been warning of a "triple lock" in the Irish banking system, which would financially incarcerate the Irish people for a generation. The triple lock would solder the people to the banking system in a suffocating embrace forcing us to borrow from tomorrow to pay for yesterday and, in the process, destroy the opportunities of today. Now with the Government upping its stake in Bank of Ireland, this prediction -- regretfully -- is coming to pass. The worst thing is that it doesn't have to be like this. The latest news that some development land in Athlone valued in the boom at €31m is now worth only €600,000 has truly terrifying implications for all of us, because it means NAMA will bankrupt us, and the triple lock implies that we can't sever the fortunes of the people fro...

Green minister fears Greek-style crisis if banks don't get houses in order 'fast'... Ireland could be plunged into a Greek-style crisis unless the banks get their house in order "quickly''. That's the stark warning issued by the Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Eamon Ryan yesterday. "The final bill for everything, that is all the madness in mortgages, the developers and general finance could be as high as €34bn," he warned. "We have done a job in projecting the Government's ability to manage its own finances. Now we have to convince the outside world that the banks have the capacity to manage their own finances," he said. Mr Ryan also noted that within Government, the view was "the sooner we do it the better''. Referring to the improved image of Ireland in the international community, he said of the banking crisis: "We have a limited window of opportunity to resolve this now. If we miss this opp...

David McWilliams: We're all fools if we think recovery plan is patriotic... It's been nearly 18 months since the Government announced its bank guarantee. Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised over a year ago and it is coming up to a year since the Government first mooted the NAMA plan. Yet nothing has actually been done since then. Not a single loan has been transferred to NAMA. There has been lots of talk, lots of bluster and point scoring, but still credit in the economy contracts, house prices continue their slow strangling decline and, most significantly, the rest of the world has moved on. Why the delay? One interpretation is that our government doesn't understand that speed is crucial. If we compare our stagnation with other countries that have been faced with national bankruptcy, we compare dreadfully. Look at what the Swedes achieved in their crisis of 1993 when their property market collapsed along with their banks. In the four months between November 1993 and February...

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 ho...

Carroll's property empire crumbles... Fears of new turmoil in the market if banks move in... DEVELOPER Liam Carroll last night lost the battle to protect his multi-billion euro empire, raising fears the property market will be plunged into further turmoil. The Supreme Court rejected his survival plan -- saying it was neither credible nor viable. A number of banks are today expected to begin the process of picking over the bones of his companies, with a view to recouping a fraction of their losses. They will be led this morning by ACC Bank, who may seek to wind up his companies, appoint a liquidator or receivers. The tycoon's Zoe Group of companies is laden down with bank debts of more than €1.2bn -- and a fire sale of his assets could undermine the Government's NAMA plan to remove €90bn of toxic development loans from bank balance books. However, it is unlikely that there will be an immediate rush to sell off assets when there is no demand for in the current climate. Declan...