Daft Property - Irish Property News

Developers’ castles may be built of sand as flood of debt rises... And what of builders and property developers? There’s no doubt that these Celtic Tiger characters have taken a serious hit to their fortunes. It may have completely wiped out large chunks of their wealth. We suspect that many are just treading water, but we really don’t know exactly how bad it is. Firstly, we don’t know how much they have borrowed and how bad their land and assets are worth. Development land in some parts of Ireland may have fallen by 95 per cent in value. This means that the banks — or rather Nama — owns it. Crucially, we don’t know the level of personal guarantees given by the developers. If they have put everything on the line for a loan, they are toast. If not, they may still retain some shattered vestige of their former wealth. How the likes of developer Johnny Ronan can blow €60,000 on a holiday in Morocco we honestly cannot imagine. But he must have made serious money in the good times — and one ...