Using association with NAMA to flog your property

There’s a Chechen mafia group called the Obshina which is very successful in its criminal enterprises, not just in Chechnya but in neighbouring Russia and beyond. A fearsome group known for its savagery, it has become so infamous that it allows its name to be used in other countries by other criminal groups in return for a fee. So from Berlin to Brighton Beach, if you’re trying to extort Russians, using the Obshina brand certainly helps. And here at home, there is some evidence that the NAMA brand is being used for similar effect, to generate sales and attract attention.

Today the Irish Times reports on 13 apartments currently being sold in Stepaside in south-west Dublin. The apartments were built by NAMA top-10 developer Joe O’Reilly and his Castlethorn Construction group in 2005. What’s interesting about the report in today’s paper is that it mentions NAMA not once but five times in a 220-word article. The article says “this will be the first of Castlethorn Construction’s housing developments to be sold by Nama and the first significant Nama disposal of new homes on Dublin’s southside.”

The thing is that this is not a NAMA sale at all, or at least not in the sense that most people would understand the terms.

Although Joe O’Reilly is reportedly a NAMA developer, NAMA has not foreclosed against him; indeed reporting has suggested that Joe is one of the NAMA developers whose business plan is likely to be supported and approved by NAMA. There’s no receiver appointed to Joe’s company or his assets. As far as can be told, the sale by is by Joe O’Reilly’s Castlethorn group, not NAMA.

So why use the NAMA brand? Probably for the same reason that auctioneers latched onto the term “distressed” after the stunning success of the first Allsop/Space auction. With NAMA there is a perception of distress, fire sale, bargain, teaser-prices. The perception might not be justified but it might be enough to get punters to view and perhaps even commit to buy.

The 13 flats are presently advertised for sale on DAFT.ie with one-bed 484 sq ft at €119,950, two-bed 700 sq ft at €159,950 from three-bed 969 sq ft at €189,950

With apartment prices in Dublin down 13% in the past year and 1.9% in the last month alone and with the real NAMA about to launch a negative equity mortgage product, you would have to have sympathy for selling agents, Sherry FitzGerald (CORRECTED from Savills) which is reportedly holding an open day this coming Saturday.

UPDATE: 15th September, 2011. The Irish Times is still sticking with the contention that the above apartments are NAMA apartments in its report on last Saturday’s open viewing day. Not once, or twice but three times, it is claimed by the newspaper that these are NAMA apartments. The newspaper also claims that deposits were taken on “about four” of the apartments – you’d think that five days after the showing you could get a precise number! The selling agent is now said to be Sherry Fitzgerald.