I am Irish & living in Spain. I feel your pain. Anyway here in Spain, I sell bank repos, it`s very easy to find & buy one, quite simply because they are everywhere. I would have thought the same for Ireland, but it seems to be a big secret. My brother tells me about unfinished townhouses & detached houses, well, for the life of me I cannot find them. Can anyone help
The Allsop space auctions are repo’s, however in a lot of cases the bank will repossess the house and rent it back to the previous occupant. So no fire sale.
allsop.co.uk/283/irish-auctions
The banks held on to the repos for a long time and are only now putting them on the market is quantity. Each bank has different agents. They are usually easy to spot as they are priced susbtantially lower than comparable properties in the same area.
Can’t really help you Mossey but could you tell us what the story is in Spain.
How far have prices fallen since the peak?
How much of a discount from normal prices are Repo’s going for?
What is the quality and type of house being sold by the banks?
Who’s buying them?
Where are they advertised?
What’s going to happen, in your view, if and when the euro stuff hits the fan?
ronanlyons.com/2011/08/30/to … t-arrears/
Basically, we don’t have involuntary repossessions in Ireland.
My experience on the ground is that banks are allowing many people to continue residing in houses for which they took out loans, even though those people are not paying back those loans and have no reasonable prospects of doing so at any time in the future.
These houses are up for sale at ridiculous asking prices and are therefore not shifting. When they drop the price of the house, the price drop is still too low and the house continues not to sell as it is never realistically priced.
Meanwhile many of us continue to live in rentals and have plenty of cash for the banks if only they were willing to turf out the spongers.
They will get turfed out of the house over the next decade if they don’t get on a repayment track. The banks are in no position to do so right now but under new management will eventually get around to it. There are a few workarounds which might get implemented such as intergenerational mortgages or assigning the mortgage to the house so the new owner takes over repayment of the mortgage. You might be on IO right now or directly renting from the bank or whatever asset management agency they use, but, that situation will not continue indefinitely, you will have to move on eventually which might not be so easy an experience when you are in your late 40s onwards with a family to support.
I’ve heard some stuff that suggests the banks are about to get tougher in regard to those seeking protection under MARP. It’s felt quite a few people have slid into a comfort zone of interest only or less without making an effort to rectify the situation. It’s also felt these breaks were handed out too easily. The assessment process is getting tougher and those with rolling over agreements will be scrutinised harder to get them back onto full capital & interest. None of this in an unfair way, might I add.
Alternative options which will allow surrender of the property are also close to being introduced. Not sure on details of this but it seems to be the kind of stuff that involves the former property owner staying in situ e.g. siezure of asset and lease back to former owner.
I’d say this will be clearer by the end of the year.
On the matter of the properties than have been repossessed so far, they are sold through EAs. There’s no secret catalogue of repossessed properties, though many a time people have enquired about them.
I wonder will the spongers end up getting squatters’ rights after a few years in situ?
The only way that repos will come to market is if either the banks come under new management (ie are sold to outside concerns), which will be unlikely with the BOI and AIB as they are state banks and as long as the state is getting funding, it will support these banks to the detriment of everything**** else. If the banks cannot be funded by the government, they will force sales to try to stay afloat and stay in Irish hands, to prevent ‘outsiders’ coming in and ruining their nice little scam.
So, you will see some movement of handed back properties (to pillar banks and repossesions to banks pulling out of ireland) via Alsops, but you won’t see any large scale repossessions unless the banks lose their funding streams.
Following on from above, it appears that there may be some s**t kicking at the BoI.
independent.ie/business/irish/investors-take-control-at-the-bank-of-ireland-3147539.html
It appears that for the last year, Ross and Watsa were quite happy to ride the wave of the ‘business as usual’ bonhommie that passes for growth in irish banking. The recent drop in share price has stirred them into action as they are looking at a 50% gain turning into a loss. They may get off their arses and inject some capitalist rigour into the cosy consensus that passes for business in ireland.
I think, however that they are onto a loser. They should have got out when they were ahead with their pump and dump operation. Because they didn’t dump, there is a significant probability that they are going to be dumped on.
But, hey!, who knows?