MOST DEVELOPERS WHO had their loans sold by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) have paid less than half of what they owed.

During a Dáil debate, the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said that of the 505 debtors had exited NAMA, only 61 had repaid 100% of the original par debt.

377 had paid 50% of the debt or less, while 92% had paid between 6% and 10% of their par debt.

When releasing the figures, Noonan said “it was never envisaged that NAMA would recover anything close to the €74 billion par value of the loans”.

The average discount was 57%. However, the acquisition discounts varied significantly depending on the underlying quality of the assets.

Response

Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty, who raised the question in the Dáil, said that this was ”a far cry from the Brian Lenihan commitment that debtors would be pursued ‘to the ends of the Earth’”.

NAMA’s mandate is to recoup as much money as possible from its debtors for the Irish people. Shockingly, 51 debtors exited having paid 10% or less of their debts while 225 debtors paid off less than 30%.

“The NAMA strategy, under direction from the Minister, to offload assets earlier than originally planned means that, in many cases, it has been the vulture funds that have benefitted from repayments from these debtors in a recovering property market.”

Read: Nama has identified nearly 7,000 homes for social housing – but only 2,748 have been taken