Daft Property - Irish Property News

Could this be a lifeline for those in negative equity?... Those with underwater mortgages may hope that new, negative equity mortgages could offer them a way out... Are negative equity mortgages a way out for people trapped in properties that no longer suit their needs or just another minefield waiting to blow up? COULD A SOLUTION to the negative equity nightmare currently facing hundreds of thousands of people finally be in sight? No, it’s not a rebounding property market, but rather a number of proposals aimed at lightening the load of those who bought during the boom, are now struggling to meet their monthly repayments and are stuck with properties they cannot sell. For those with underwater mortgages, the difficulty in selling arises because the sale of the property will not generate enough to pay back the lender. For example, if you bought a property for €400,000 with a 95 per cent mortgage during the boom, regardless of the fact that the apartment will now only make €280,000 on t...

McNamara, FitzPatrick facing bankruptcy 'in weeks'... TWO of the Celtic Tiger's highest fliers -- developer Bernard McNamara and banker Sean FitzPatrick -- face bankruptcy within weeks. The Irish Independent has learned that Mr McNamara, once worth almost €240m, is facing a fresh attempt by a group of private investors to force him into bankruptcy. The group is pursuing up to 40 properties owned by the Clare-born builder, records show. Meanwhile, Anglo Irish Bank will veto any plans by FitzPatrick -- who owes the bank €110m -- to reach a private deal with his creditors. Both men are now facing the real prospect of having all their assets, including their family homes, seized and sold off. Pursued Bankruptcy in Ireland lasts for 12 years, with those declared bankrupt facing travel restrictions, curbs on their ability to borrow money and/or run a business. Mr McNamara is already being pursued by investors arising from the disastrous Glass Bottle site investment. But now a sec...

Despite movement in the property market in the first six months of this year, little has changed really. Prices are still falling, the banks are continuing to enforce tougher lending criteria and discussion about the dreaded property tax has loomed its ugly head again instilling fear among most homeowners. Bank sales of apartment blocks that have gone bust have gained interest from buyers as the banks try to recoup some of their loans. But what’s going to happen for the rest of the year? Houses have started selling again, but are the volumes worth talking about and are bank sales going to become a common feature of the property market? Some commentators consider successful sales of receivership properties a sign of a recovery starting, others view them as a negative influence on an already struggling market. There has been considerable debate about a levelling-out of property prices or ‘‘a bottoming’’ of the market since the start of the year. Instead we’ve seen prices continue to fall...

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...

Debt crisis to worsen as markets target Ireland... Ireland has lost control of its financial fate and its future is now in the hands of the markets, one of Europe's leading sovereign bond commentators has said. Luca Cazzulani, deputy head of fixed income at Italian-German bank UniCredit, said the Irish and Portuguese governments could do little to influence their fate because the markets had signaled them out from the so-called PIIGS - Portugal Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - for extreme scrutiny. He forecast that key sovereign interest rates in Ireland and Portugal, which rose last week to more than 5.5%, were "unlikely" to fall back below 5% because markets were not anticipating good news from Europe. "If anything, we are likely to get further bad news," Cazzulani warned. Irish and Portuguese sovereign interest rates could stay "very high" for five or six months. "If so, then we are going to face a series of stresses because these levels are ...

Department says it warned of property bubble... THE DEPARTMENT of Finance says it warned the Government from 2005 onwards about the dangers of a property bubble, internal official documents show. Briefing material prepared for the department’s secretary general Kevin Cardiff last month states that the department warned over several years that the “over-emphasis on construction left the economy vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks”. It also defends the department’s performance in failing to forecast the extent of the downturn, and points to similar failures by institutions such as the ESRI, Central Bank and the private sector to predict the magnitude of the slowdown. The material was prepared for the secretary general ahead of his appearance before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee just over a month ago. The contents of the documents have been released under the Freedom of Information Act in the same week Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan announced an external review of the depart...

Mortgage bid to unlock market could backfire... NEGATIVE equity is the scourge of homeowners who bought their houses in the past few years. By the end of this year, as many as one-in-three mortgage holders are expected to be in negative equity -- where the value of their home has collapsed to such an extent that they owe their lender more than it is worth. Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) economist David Duffy made the estimate based on house prices having fallen by 30pc from the peak of the housing boom in 2007. But most commentators say that house prices have fallen by around 50pc from the peak. In that case, the ESRI estimates that some 350,000 homeowners will end up in negative equity this year. Being in negative equity means you cannot sell your house to move somewhere else. This is because you will still owe the bank more than the sale price of the home. Banks will not normally allow you to sell up in that situation. This is why Ulster Bank and EBS Building Society a...