With the goal of wrapping up its operations by next year’s end, the National Treasury Management Agency (Nama), colloquially known as the ‘bad bank’, has recently taken direct control of lands potentially housing 4,000 residential units from borrowers. This move is part of a larger effort to organise its affairs prior to its scheduled closure, sources indicate.
Nama is expected to pass over these lands to the Land Development Agency (LDA) next year before it ceases operations. Any remaining assets are anticipated to be moved to a new resolution division being formed within the National Treasury Management Agency, according to reports.
The agency unveiled in its most recent strategic annual statement, posted last Thursday, its recent possession of “specific vital sites with considerable value-add potential and capability for about 4,000 residential units”. No information about the context was disclosed.
The LDA is the most probable state body to take over these lands next year under the supervision of Brendan McDonagh, Nama’s chief executive. This move is yet to be officially authorised by the Finance Minister Jack Chambers.
Nama refrained from commenting beyond the details stated in the report. There are high hopes that Nama’s direct management of lands previously owned by certain debtors could pave the way towards the efficient construction of homes.
These lands hold a third of the over 12,000 potential residential units Nama previously revealed could be built on debtor-owned lands over time.
The detailed plan includes securing planning permission for more than 3,000 units and processing further planning approvals for 3,600 homes. Land suitable for more than 5,500 homes is currently not designated.
As Nama finalises taking direct control of lands equivalent to approximately 4,000 homes, it also plans to seize the lingering assets of IBRC in early 2025, prior to finalising its own closure by the year’s end. The remnants of both Nama and IBRC are due to be incorporated into a new resolution unit within the NTMA, under government plans.
Over the previous ten years, Nama has helped deliver 39,377 new homes.
In the strategy statement, it was stated that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), through direct or licensed funding to receivers and debtors, has accounted for the delivery of an estimated 14,336 properties. Furthermore, an additional 25,041 homes have been commissioned indirectly via previously funded sites by Nama, through avenues such as legal costs, planning permissions, holding costs and enabling endeavours, whether the properties are eventually sold or the related loans are sold or refinanced.
It is projected by Nama that the agency will record a surplus nearing €4.8 billion over its lifespan. Before Nama’s dissolution, it is anticipated to have submitted approximately €400 million in corporate tax to the treasury.
Des Carville, the head of the Financial Advisory and Bank Shareholding unit within Ireland’s Department of Finance, recounted last month during a finance committee meeting at Oireachtas, that certain officials from Ireland’s previous bailout troika hypothesized nearly a decade ago, near the conclusion of the rescue programme backed by the IMF, EU and ECB, that Nama would face a deficit of about €10 billion in its closing stages. However, according to its recent quarterly report issued on Thursday, Nama realised profits worth €53 million in the initial half of this year.