“We go there and they come here” – time for NAMA to seek foreign investors and buyers?

“We go there and they come here” – so sang Christie Moore with “Lisdoonvarna” and succinctly summed up modern mass tourism. With news that the Top 10 NAMA developers have requested €1.5bn of funding to complete projects I wonder if it is time for NAMA to cast its net far and wide for third party (co-)developers and investors. After all NAMA has been referred to as the world’s biggest property fund with €81bn of property under management. So why not have a global approach to attracting funding? If Treasury China Trust can still throw shapes in the Chinese market, if Bernard McNamara can rustle up €20m deals in Qatar, if Avestus (formerly Quinlan Private) is developing a 100,000 sq ft shopping centre in St Petersburg and if Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore is developing the Embassy Quarter beside the Battersea Power Station site (property of Treasury), then what is NAMA doing to get developers and financiers from abroad to invest in NAMA assets, particularly the ones backing €55-60bn of loans here.

Of course you might say the Irish property market is moribund and not attractive to foreign investors. But remember that NAMA has paid a price for the loans reflecting the reality today and taking a prudent view of the long term economic values. So if NAMA has done its job correctly then there should be a relatively level playing field for attracting finance between Dublin, Doha, St Petersburg and Shanghai.

So how are NAMA courting international investors and developers? Whose job is it at NAMA to seek out these creatures? Who has that expertise or experience? Global property fund = global reach. And NAMA might find it gets more co-operation from NAMA developers if it is known that there are other suitors seeking to develop or invest in NAMA projects. Time for NAMA to engage with the Arab sheikhs, Hindu Sikhs, Jesus freaks?