Sale of 10,000 NAMA apartments to shake up the housing market

State-owned NAMA is now the major player in the residential rental market, collecting rental income from 10,000 of the 14,000 residential properties on its books.

The plan is to sell off that portfolio over time in huge chunks of hundreds and even thousands strong lots to professional investment funds.

That promises to radically change the housing market here.

Irish housing has traditionally been dominated by owner-occupiers on the one hand and small-time, often part-time, landlords on the other.

NAMA’s plan to attract in a whole new class of large-scale international property investor to own and manage entire blocks instead of one or two apartments could gradually see the development of a more Continental style rental market in Ireland – less personal but more professional.

Over time, greater professionalism could encourage more people to become long-term renters, especially among the generation scarred by negative equity and the bursting of the housing bubble.

In the meantime, NAMA warned that Dublin faces a potential housing shortage, after half a decade of little or no construction activity.

“Watch this space – there is a housing issue for sure,” NAMA’s head of asset management John Mulcahy told a business conference in Dublin. Source The Irish Independent.