Sir, – I raised another eyebrow reading Bill Nowlan’s piece (Commercial Property, September 26th).
He is very concerned that the massive glut of distressed property that his cocktail party colleagues and the banks sold back in the “good old days” now being sold will lead to the floor of the market being clouded.
In order to make the market, or at least a free market work, it is not, as he suggests, for the banks to hold on to all the bricks and mortar and sell it when the market magically jumps up again. It is simple, we need to do what Mr Nolan and the other vested interests balked at, scratch out the upwards only clauses in existing leases. It can be done: the Credit Institutions Stabilisation Act 2010 shows this, the constitutional argument would shatter under judicial scrutiny.
This will bring the real floor, allow real investors in, not Nama “finance”. Businesses will weather the storm and retail prices will come down, leading to consumer confidence. Perhaps we can reboot the economy one small free market step at a time. The dinosaurs became extinct because they could not adapt, lets not break bread with T-Rex. – Yours, etc,