The Chairman of NAMA, Mr. Frank Daly and the Chief Executive, Mr Brendan McDonagh, appeared before today’s meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform in response to a request from the Committee for an update on NAMA’s progress. The opening statements delivered by the Chairman and Chief Executive included the following points:

Financial

• In 2015 to date, NAMA has generated cash receipts of €8.8 billion which brings the total cash generated since inception to €32.4 billion.
• For the first half of 2015, NAMA reported a profit of €473m, including, for the first time, a write-back on impairment. Full-year 2015 profits are expected to be well in excess of €1 billion.
• NAMA is close to achieving its target of redeeming 80% (€24 billion) of its senior debt by the end of 2016. As of now, €22.1 billion (73%) has been redeemed. NAMA is confident of redeeming all of its senior debt (€30.2 billion) by 2018 and of generating a surplus of about €2 billion by the time it completes its work.

Dublin Docklands SDZ

• Sites under the control of NAMA-appointed receivers and investment partners have the capacity to deliver 3.8m square feet of commercial space and about 2,000 residential units.
• Construction has started on sites which are expected to deliver just over 780,000 square feet of commercial (mainly office) accommodation and 245 residential units.
• Planning permission has been obtained or has been sought for another 1.8m square feet of commercial development space, including office, hotel and 970-bed student accommodation in addition to 326 residential units. This includes Block 10a on North Wall Quay where planning permission was received in recent days for a development of almost 400,000 square feet.
• Pre-planning work is underway on the remaining 1.3m square feet of commercial space and some 1,168 residential units.

Residential delivery

• In addition to the 2,300 units completed to date and funded by NAMA, construction has begun on sites which will ultimately deliver another 3,000 units.
• Over 900 units have been built on sites sold by debtors and receivers since early 2014 – these sites have a capacity to deliver 11,000 units ultimately.
• Another 5,000 units have received planning permission with construction expected to begin on the majority of these in 2016.
• Planning applications have been lodged or will be lodged within 12 months for another 9,900 units.
• Another 32,500 units are at the pre-planning stage or feasibility stages – these sites have specific infrastructural requirements such as roads, water and sewerage that will need to be addressed by local authorities and other state bodies.
• In response to a complaint which has been submitted to the EU Commission alleging that there may be State aid implications to NAMA’s proposal to fund commercially viable residential projects under the control of its debtors and receivers, NAMA, in conjunction with the Department of Finance, has had preliminary engagement with the Commission. The NAMA Board is satisfied that the proposed programme is commercial and does not constitute State aid. 

Social Housing

•  NAMA has achieved its end-2015 target of delivering 2,000 houses and apartments for social housing.  To put this into context, the 2,000 units equate to more than one-third of the total of 5,700 Part V social housing units delivered in Ireland between 2002 and 2011; this was during a period of unprecedented housing output when a total of 550,000 new residential units were completed.
• Since the start of 2012, NAMA has identified over 6,500 houses and apartments, controlled by its debtors and receivers, as available for social housing. 2,500 of these units have been confirmed as suitable by local authorities.
• The 2,000 units have been delivered across 131 individual projects spread over 18 counties and have involved transactions with 18 approved housing bodies and 9 local authorities. NAMA has invested more than €150m through its special vehicle, NARPS, to buy houses and apartments from its debtors and receivers and to lease them directly to local authorities and approved housing bodies.
• NAMA has invested over €70m to remediate and complete properties. By the time all properties are delivered under this initiative, NAMA will have spent more than a quarter of a billion euro in remediating and completing properties and in buying properties through NARPS.
• In addition to the 2,000 social housing units delivered by end-2015, and in line with Part V requirements, a significant delivery of social housing will be part of NAMA’s expanded 2016-2020 residential delivery programme. 

Unfinished housing estates

After acquiring its loan portfolio in 2010, NAMA loans were secured by 332 estates that were classified as unfinished. As a result of remediation work funded by NAMA over the past five years, the number of unfinished estates securing its loans has now fallen to 47. It is expected that all of these will be resolved over the course of 2016 once ‘site resolution plans’ are finalised with local authorities.

Back