Talking Property

Nama's approach will be to save the best properties and sell the rest, says ISABEL MORTON

I’M WONDERING how long it will take before property developer Bernard McNamara’s Dublin 4 home will come on the market? After all, he did tell us that he would lose his home, as it would soon be repossessed along with his other assets.Could it take weeks, months or even years before the “For Sale” signs go up at his Ailesbury Road residence?

Then, there would just be the little matter of finding buyers who would be interested in snapping up the newly built Dublin 4 property with its basement swimming pool with automatic cover which, at the flick of a switch, can turn it into a dance floor.

Indeed, whatever about finding one person who might be in a position to buy it, I’m sure vast numbers would be thrilled just to get a chance to view it. In fact, the property-obsessed public has been so deprived of posh pads of late that I suggest McNamara might even consider this as a business opportunity and open his house to the public and charge an entry fee.

Now, I’m not suggesting that it would make much of a dint in the money he owes the banks and private investors, but I am guessing that there’d be queues outside, even at €20 per head (swim included). And, as they say, every little counts.

Indeed, other Ailesbury Road residents might see a few openings to earn some hard cash (tax-free) by providing car-parking facilities and perhaps even selling drinks and sandwiches at their (electric) gates.

Are we likely to see a glut of repossessed homes coming on the market in 2010 or will Nama and the banks sort through the properties and decide on which to stockpile for the future and which to sell immediately?

If I were employed in the Nama property sorting house, I’d be inclined to put all of the commuter belt houses on the market immediately, along with the glut of suburban apartments (at bargain basement prices) in the hope that safe-public- sector-employed-first-time-buyers would snap them up quickly and clear them off the bad books.

Then I would set up a Nama in-house letting agency to rent out the “mid range” properties at competitive rates, which would of course undercut those currently being charged by hard pressed landlords. “Nama Lettings” could make itself a tidy sum. After a few years I’d release them gradually onto the market, beginning with those which made the least rent return.

I would of course have already made sure to cherry-pick the “trophy” homes and set them aside. After all, even on their reduced salaries and with a ban on bonuses, the top brass bankers are probably going to be the only ones left who could afford to buy them.

So, perhaps we shouldn’t be holding our collective breaths in anticipation of the property floodgates opening suddenly and disgorging a glut of superb properties for sale at rock bottom prices, as it wouldn’t serve their purpose.

Neither the banks nor the Government want to lose any more money, therefore the likelihood is that they will adopt the “save the best and sell the rest” policy rather than dump everything on the market immediately. After all, they know better than most that most of these properties have no chance of selling, because the banks are not lending.

The banks will bide their time until their institutions have stabilised, been refinanced and have recovered sufficiently to enable them to lend again. At which time, they will reap large rewards by selling on the best examples of repossessed property into a rising market.

And you may be sure, like the phoenix, it will rise again.

According to the property website myhome.ie, there has been a marked increase in active sales leads to estate agents via their website when compared with last autumn.

Apparently it wasn’t just a case of people who were snowed in over the holiday season with little else to do but search the internet, as estate agents confirm the increase in enquiries and indeed, good viewings, despite the inclement weather.

However, all admit that first-time buyers made up the bulk of these enthusiastic househunters, which confirms the claims that those wishing to trade up are still unable to put their nose above the parapet due to lack of available credit.

Instead, they nervously check the value of their own homes and compare prices with those of their dream homes, but even these are in short supply.

Myhome.ie reports that already well-located three- bedroom semi-detached houses in the capital are few and far between and there has been a noticeable shortage of new sales stock on the market.

It may, after all, be just the right time to flog McNamara’s gaff.