Daft Property - Irish Property News

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...

Repossessions at all-time high but crisis to deepen... REPOSSESSION orders granted by the courts have risen almost six-fold since the peak of the property boom. Figures released by the Courts Service show that the number of orders granted by the High Court and Circuit Courts for the repossession of lands and premises were at their highest last year, a figure that is set to rise as lenders increase their interest rates. Some 70,000 homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages, according to Central Bank figures, including up of 40,000 people who have not made a payment for three months or more, and 30,000 who are making interest-only payments. The 70,000 figure includes around 12,000 homeowners who have not made any payments for a year or more. The vast majority of repossession orders granted in the courts are for residential properties, with some 263 of the 306 properties seized by the banks in the Circuit Court last year granted on foot of defaults on home loans. Althou...