Mortgage wars: banks battle for mortgage customers as property upturn takes hold
Lenders are cutting rates, offering sweeteners to brokers to funnel business to them, and giving borrowers incentives such as paying for home valuations in a bid to win a bigger slice of the lucrative mortgage market.
The stepping up of mortgage lending is prompted by demand from new buyers and some of the higest profit margins for home loans in Europe.
AIB, KBC, Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland have …
UK rating fears if Scots banks defect to London
The warning that England and Wales could be negatively affected if banks carry out a threat to move south if Scots vote for independence is in contrast to most analysts who have focused on the implications for Scotland.
If lenders, including RBS and Lloyds, opt to leave an independent Scotland for England it would impact on the remaining, rump, UK’s credit rating, according to Gary Jenkins, a bond market analyst …
Nama to supply 4,500 new homes in Dublin over next 18 months
Nama will supply 4,500 housing units in Dublin over the next 18 months, said the agency’s chief executive, Brendan McDonagh.
Nama will fund and oversee the construction of houses and apartments in areas throughout the city in an effort to meet surging demand. Building has already started on 1,000 of these units.
Mr McDonagh said the agency had the potential to supply up to 25,000 residential units in sites linked …
Professional yes, but property Reits are no 'get rich quick' scheme
The establishment of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) is seen as a way of achieving two important things – allowing ordinary Irish investors to get a slice of the action through regulated, professional property companies and also reducing the sector’s dependence on a coterie of personal property fiefdoms capable of practically sinking the banking system.
That is why we have three stock market-listed Reits which have floated in the last …
Howlin 'hopes' Ireland's boom and bust cycle is over
The comments come days after Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Ireland needs a different economic model as the recovery begins to broaden, focused more on steady growth akin to the Nordic and Northern European models.
Ahead of a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Howlin said the State had made remarkable progress after having gone through the most difficult period of economic recovery in the history of the state.
“What we’ve done …