Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2013
196. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 91 on 21 March 2013, if he considers the 4,000 homes that the National Asset Management Agency controls which are vacant to be distorting rent levels in the urban areas where NAMA says the majority of its housing is located. [18450/13]
View answerAs advised in the response to Parliamentary Question No. 91, all properties securing NAMA’s loans are ultimately available for rent or sale. As advised in my response to Parliamentary Question 91, of the completed residential property securing NAMA's loans, approximately 10,000 units are currently rented, primarily in the private rented market. The residual NAMA residential stock is being actively marketed for rent or sale by NAMA debtors and receivers at market prices or has been made available for social housing or is currently being marketed under the Agency's 80/20 Deferred Payment Initiative. According to the most recent Census there are over 320,000 private rental properties in the country. Therefore, the scale of NAMA's vacant homes is not large enough to distort the market.
