Daft Property - Irish Property News

Superpub entrepreneur now entering last-chance saloon... CAPITAL Bars is the Dublin hotel and superpub group owned by brothers Liam and Des O'Dwyer. Through Capital Bars, the O'Dwyer brothers own a number of prominent premises in Dublin, including superpubs Cafe En Seine, which holds up to 1,500 people, Zanzibar and the Trinity Capital Hotel. The chain also includes Break for the Border and Howl At The Moon. Like many of the country's hospitality entrepreneurs, the O'Dwyer brothers have been exposed to the downturn. Earlier this year the group said that it was experiencing "huge downward pressure on room rates and occupancy" and said that it was engaged in "aggressive cost cutting". Last May Deepdrill Developments, a property vehicle controlled by the two brothers, filed a High Court petition to shut down Danninger, the main operating company behind Ireland's biggest developer, Liam Carroll, who will seek an unprecedented second examinership hear...

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...

Nama turns us into a nation of speculators... OPINION: Builders and developers have finally managed to shape the country in their own image... THE DRAFT National Asset Management Agency (Nama) legislation runs to 136 pages, so it’s not too surprising that most people have missed the interesting section 201. It reads as follows: 201.1: Henceforth, all male children shall be called Seán, Seánie, Paddy, Mick, Tom, Joe, Gerry, Liam or Bernard. All female children shall be christened Seona, Patricia, Michaela, Tomasina, Josephine, Geraldine, Wilma or Bernadine and shall be referred to de facto as Seán, Seánie, Paddy, Mick, Tom, Joe, Gerry, Liam or Bernard. 201.2: From the coming into force of this legislation, all citizens shall be required to receive a daily dosage of testosterone and cocaine to induce feelings of competitive aggression and megalomaniacal omnipotence. 201.3: All male citizens shall wear a pink shirt as a declaration that said citizen is so macho that he can wear pink and n...

Building a case for survival without a solid foundation... IN a certain fairytale, a vain emperor struts through the streets showing off his "new clothes". The adoring crowd applauds the naked emperor until a small child cries out: "But he has nothing on!" Yesterday, Judge Peter Kelly, head of the Commercial Court, gave short shrift to developer Liam Carroll's "fanciful" scheme to turn a €1bn-plus loss into a €300m profit in three years. Liam Carroll, a reclusive director of 203 companies, is the developer least likely to exhibit any degree of vanity. But he is naked. He is broke. His companies are insolvent. Not only insolvent, but so interconnected in a "byzantine" corporate structure that if one company falls, the empire does too. Carroll knows this. The Government knows this. Carroll's benign lenders, who are rolling up his interest with "great forbearance", know this. These are the same banks, incidentally, who are hammerin...

The golden triangle – FF, the builders and the banks... Despite last week's bail-out, some of the country's most ambitious redevelopment plans are still in jeopardy... It was Fianna Fáil's best friend, Bob the Builder, who propelled the banks into the liquidity crisis and caused the historic post-midnight sitting of the Dáil. After a decade of swaggering around the corridors of power and inside the Fianna Fáil tent, many of those feted builders are now expected to put their most extravagant plans on ice and sit out the recession, cushioned by the citizens' guarantee to the financial institutions . "We're not so much talking about a golden circle as the golden triangle – Fianna Fáil, the builders and the banks," says Labour's Joan Burton. Irish banks are owed €110bn by the property and construction sector. It accounts for €60 of every €100 that residents have on deposit. As 28% of all borrowings, it is significantly greater than the 25% construction p...