Sean Fitzpatrick – best value for money landlord in the State?

The Irish Times yesterday reported on former Anglo Irish boss Sean Fitzpatrick’s continuing bankruptcy journey through the High Court and stated that Sean, together with his wife in some instances, has a number of properties on which he is collecting rent. The details of the properties given would seem to suggest that Sean is renting properties at bargain-basement levels, in particular on the following two properties:

(1) 25 Camaderry Road, Bray, Co Wicklow on which Sean gets €5,100 per annum in rent (that’s an even €425 per calendar month). I don’t know the road at all but a summary search on DAFT.ie shows a three-bedroom one-bathroom semi-detached house on Camaderry Road with a sale agreed status – the asking price was €569,000. There doesn’t seem to be any other property for sale or rent on Camaderry Road. If Sean’s 25 Camaderry Road property were similar to this property and the €569,000 asking price was a reflection of the value of the house then Sean would be getting a yield of 0.9%. The Rent Assistance for Wicklow is €529 pcm at the very lowest single occupancy level and rises to €1,110 pcm, so Sean appears to be undercutting the State’s own rental assistance levels!

(2) Flat at 7^th,8^th and 9^th floors, Smithfield Market, Dublin on which Sean is reported to be receiving €16,800 per annum (equal to an even €1,400 per calendar month). Again there are no further details of the accommodation but if the apartment extends over three floors, it is hardly a studio! Now it appears that you can rent a 1-bed apartment from €850 pcm in the Smithfield Market but penthouse apartments would appear to be going for €2,600 pcm. Without knowing more details about Sean’s flat it would be difficult to comment but on the face of it a 3-floor flat for €1,400 pcm appears very low.

It should be said that the Irish Times article also refers to a property at Killiney Court being rented for €30,000 per annum (€2,500 pcm) and previous reporting has claimed this property is an apartment so it would seem that the rental on the Killiney Court property is more in line with open market rents.

UPDATE: 20th April, 2011. The property at 25 Camaderry Road appears to be for sale at auction at 3pm on 24th May, 2011 at the Stillorgan Park Hotel in Dublin 18. There is a viewings tomorrow 21st April, 2011  from 1-2pm

UPDATE: 30th May, 2011. According to RTE, a court this morning approved the sale of 25 Camaderry Road which had been auctioned last week. The sale price was not disclosed in court and there seems to be some difficulty in establishing exactly how much the property did in fact fetch.

UPDATE: 17th June, 2011. The Irish Times reports that the house at 25 Camaderry Road sold for €310,000 which it says is €190,000 less than the valuation given in court last year. Further, the house is said to be the former residence of Sean’s parents. The property was jointly owned by Sean and his sister, Joyce O’Connor, so apparently €155,000 of the sale price will go towards paying off Sean’s reported €147m of debts.

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€60m boost for social housing sector

Announced by Minister for Housing at the Department of the Environment Housing and Local Government earlier this week, it seems that €60m is to be released by the department to housing bodies for the purchase of 431 units (an average of €139k per unit but it is unclear at this stage if that is represents a contribution to the total cost or whether it is intended that the units be acquired for €139k) under the Capital Assistance Scheme by Approved Housing Bodies for the provision of accommodation for persons with specific categories of need. The funding will be released by the Department when the local authorities, who administer this scheme, submit valid claims to the Department.

Funding is based on the applications submitted by the local authority which sets out the overall cost of a project (cost of unit plus any allowable fees).

The names of the Approved Housing Bodies which have been approved for funding is set out below. It is understood the Department is in the process of issuing approval letters to the Local authorities and the Approved Housing Bodies.

By Housing Body

By Local Authority

Here’s the spreadsheet

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“It is essential that NAMA move on as quickly as possible to get asset sales under its belt” – John C. Corrigan, NTMA Chief

The relationship between NAMA and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has become a little confused in recent times. NAMA was always touted as operating “under the aegis” of the NTMA.  In addition to NAMA, the NTMA claims to have three other agencies under its “aegis”

(1) The National Pension Reserve Fund

(2) The State Claims Agency

(3) The National Development Finance Agency

And up until recently (certainly April this year when the NAMA CEO and NTMA CEO appeared together at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service) we would have had the impression that NAMA CEO, Brendan McDonagh had a reporting line to John Corrigan. It seems not looking at NAMA’s view of itself recently presented in Tralee, Galway and the UK and reproduced below:

Now it seems that NAMA still depends on the NTMA for some functional assistance in terms of accounting, HR and presumably accommodation and IT. In terms of salary the NTMA CEO revealed yesterday that his salary was €490,000 plus a bonus (of up to 80% of salary giving a theoretical maximum of €882,000). The Tribune reported earlier this year that both the NAMA and NTMA CEOs were paid €500k+ (table see below). The NTMA organization chart still shows John C. Corrigan as the chief executive with a board of directors that includes Brendan McDonagh. I wonder if that accurately shows the relationship.

And of course NAMA may have more assets under management than the NTMA and may have a more significant role in the life of the State for the next 10 years. So I wonder what the NAMA CEO will have made of the NTMA CEO’s statements at the “Confidence in Media” conference in Dublin yesterday reported by the Independent and Reuters where he claimed NAMA needed to sell of assets now. “Feck off John and keep your nose out of my business, you have enough on your plate yourself” might be one reaction from the NAMA CEO in reference to the difficulties confronted by the NTMA in selling Irish debt at non-ridiculous prices at the moment.

NAMA of course appears to be selling property as suggested on here during the week, both in the State and in the UK.

Below is the information produced by the Sunday Tribune in June 2010 which claimed to show the 68 public servants (ie the 27 shown below plus six other Supreme Court judges plus 35 High Court judges) earning more than the Taoiseach (€228,466).  The list is incomplete though it is not clear how incomplete – the Financial Regulator and Central Bank Governor for example are better paid than the Taoiseach.

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