Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2012
196. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide the policy adopted by the National Asset Management Agency with respect to reducing rents to commercial tenants, who are facing financial distress, of buildings under the control of NAMA borrowers or its receivers. [51144/12]
View answerThe National Asset Management Agency approves requests for rent easement or abatement from its debtors where a tenant demonstrates that the rent payable under a lease is in excess of current market levels and that the viability of a business is, as a consequence, threatened. By the end of October 2012, the Agency had received 273 rent abatement applications through debtors/receivers: 210 had been approved, 4 were refused, 9 were non-Agency or otherwise inapplicable and the remaining 50 were under review at that point. Some 159 applications have been received since the Agency’s Guidance Note on Upwards Only Commercial Leases was published last December. Since the start of the year, NAMA has approved cumulative rent reductions through debtors/receivers of over €6 million, bringing the total rent savings to date since inception of this initiative to approximately €9.7 million with a further €3.4 million currently under review. NAMA proactively works through debtors/receivers to facilitate rent abatements where the contractual rent is in excess of prevailing market rates and where, as a consequence, the viability of tenant businesses is undermined. NAMA's Guidance Note on Upwards Only Commercial Leases is available on its website, www.nama.ie. The Agency engages with industry representative bodies in the retail sector to promote understanding of the Guidance Note and its applicability.
