The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) asked if it could be used to help with the housing crisis to avoid losing the “valuable expertise and experience” it had built up during its years of operation.
The State bad bank, which is in the process of being wound down, said it could play an important role in dealing with the country’s “housing problem”.
Much of its “expertise and delivery know-how” was going to depart Nama over the next two or three years it warned, according to a briefing paper prepared for the Department of Finance.
The paper said that Nama had completed most of its work and “consistently and successfully delivered” on the mandate it had been given.
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‘Expertise and experience’
It added: “[Our] valuable expertise and experience could be utilised to address aspects of the housing problem and not let disappear from the public sector.”
Nama said it had a strong record in providing “end-to-end asset-management capability” that could be directed towards tackling the shortage of housing.
The paper said: “Absent a viable alternative, much of this expertise and delivery know-how is expected to depart Nama over the next two to three years.”
In-house capacity
It said there was already in-house capacity to advise on every phase of residential development with expertise in planning, surveying, risk management, accounting, finance, legal issues and procurement.
Nama said it had experience in helping deliver the process from undeveloped land to sale of built homes in the space of 36 months. It added it had extensive know-how in resolving legal and title issues that could slow development of land, as well as getting through the planning process.
The agency noted it had a track record of helping to finance strategic and local infrastructure as a “key enabler” for development of housing.
Most new homes it was involved with – about 80 per cent – had been sold to individual buyers or to approved housing bodies and local authorities.
A spokesman for Nama said: “Nama aims to conclude its work no later than December 2025 through a phased and orderly winddown, having regard to the primacy of its section 10 commercial mandate.”
