Daft Property - Irish Property News

Morgan Kelly predicts further unforseen losses for banks... Kelly warns billions owed by small number of big developers UCD economist Morgan Kelly has predicted that bad debts of a small number of wealthy buy-to-let property investors could lead to previously unforeseen losses for the banks. Professor Kelly claims this group could cause major problems, even if the overall number of people not repaying home loans does not rise drastically. However, Prof Kelly, who is renowned for his doom-laden analysis of the housing market, admitted he had no idea how big the resulting losses could be if these 'super-investors' cannot repay their loans. Prof Kelly, who forecast the original property bust, says in a new academic paper that many wealthy buy-to-let property investors have multiple loans and if they get into trouble that losses will be magnified. In the paper, published on the UCD website, the economist said there could be as few as 2,000 mortgages of more than €1m tak...

Homeowners to blame for crisis too, says Bruton Irish people 'ought to have been aware where things were going' when buying during boom... FORMER Taoiseach John Bruton says that Irish people "ought to have been aware where things were going" with the economy when they bought houses during the boom. "I have been someone who has been very critical of the EU authorities and the ECB and others in not using powers that they clearly had under the treaties to ensure prudential supervision both in the countries lending to Ireland and in the Irish banks themselves, and I think there is a responsibility there that I don't row back from, but, on the other hand, we also ought to have been aware where things were going. "Everybody could see that house prices were rising faster [than they should have been]," Mr Bruton -- who now holds the position of president of the IFSC -- told the Sunday Independent. The former Taoiseach's attempt to add ordinary...