The London Sunday Times (not available online without subscription) is today reporting that NAMA has sold Updown Court, the 50,000 sq ft mansion on 58-acres in Surrey, just outside London. The Daily Mail has picked up on the story, which gives that paper the opportunity to again use its rich stock of photographs of the property. Updown Court was shown on the NAMA foreclosure list at the end of August 2011, meaning the agency had taken control of the property.
The property has its own website here and its owner, developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe had been trying to flog it for six years before NAMA appointed CB Richard Ellis as receivers.
NAMA hasn’t commented on the sale as is its practice, but on the face of it, the sale represents a solid success for the agency. The sale price is reported to be GBP 35m (€40m). It had previously been reported in the press – though naturally not confirmed by NAMA – that NAMA had acquired the underlying loan for the property for GBP 20m (€23m). If the reporting of the sale price and the NAMA-acquisition price are accurate, then NAMA will have generated a profit of GBP 15m (€17m) before costs. Of course Irish Nationwide Building Society has suffered a massive loss on the original loan, but at least NAMA seems to have done its job.
The buyer of Updown Court remains a mystery and is said to be a “foreign businessman”. If unsuccessful buyers want to check out Ireland’s most expensive house, here it is – Walford on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin, a derelict mediocre Edwardian property which has been extensively vandalised, it comes with two acres. Savills seems to think it has an Advised Minimum Value of €15m!
UPDATE: 30th January, 2012. It seems as if the sale of the mansion has just completed for GBP 36m (€43m) and Property Week claims this is GBP 27m less than the borrowing associated with the property. The buyer is said to be from the Middle East.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Garishly ostentatious. It’s fit only to be a hotel or a similar commercial building. How did this one even end up in NAMA anyway?
@NWL
You did not disclose the original outstanding loan on the property. Best I coud do is that in 2005 it was offered at over 70 million sterling. Now it sells for 35 million, sounds like a Greek haircut to me.
I would suggest, if we can assume 70 million to Irish Nationwide Building Society, that what you call a success is ONLY a loss of 35 million to Irish taxpayer.
Amazing that the egotistical, asininity of one oligarch can piss away this amount of money in one shot.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/mar/02/movinghouse.property
@Jake, indeed it is likely that INBS is sitting on a nice little loss as mentioned in the blogpost above. But NAMA valued its acquisitions by reference to values at 30th November 2009 and paid an average of a 9% Long Term Economic Value premium on top. NAMA’s valuations were agreed with the banks and approved by the European Commission (the first two tranches were anyway). So for NAMA, the sale is a success if the reported sale and loan acquisition prices are correct. Sad thing is that NAMA is not likely to release the individual accounting.
I agree, the real perspective on this story is that it is a loss of €35 million to the taxpayer…. I hope that the general media will understand this , but it’s unlikely.
Indo reports it as ‘The 103-room Updown Court, which has five swimming pools, was an Irish Nationwide joint venture, which lent £63m (€71m) to the project’
Whats MOST AMAZING is the nature of the loan if this does not constitute GROSS NEGLIGENCE not sure what does.How on earth does one get a non recourse loan to ‘spec’ built/finish a HOUSE!!!!!!
‘The house’s developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe was not personally liable for any of the debts and his only role in the project in the last year was to find a buyer’
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/nama-sells-off-euro40m-uk-house-to-indian-executive-2907807.html
@John Gallager
“”How on earth does one get a non recourse loan to ‘spec’ built/finish a HOUSE!!!!!!””
I hope NAMA will seek some Crown investigative help in determining the answer to your question.
They may be able to join some of the ‘joints’ in this Joint Venture.
£63m (€71m)-NON RECOURSE loan on a spec house extravagant and wasteful does not describe it also because of the nature of the loan the ‘partner’ in the JV it would not appear will have any TAX liability for the debt ‘forgiveness’ loss of est. 30mil. on a HOUSE !!!!!!!!
The only saving grace is thank god they were finally stopped/crashed where was the REGULATORS in this its GROSS NEGLIGENCE way beyond ‘careless or sloppy’ to have made this loan.
@ JG
I have an idea for a proper headline:
“Irish Taxpayers Lose 35 million on Spec House as Developer Walks”
While GE Capital secured its position on modest 3 bed in Dublin and evicts family with 3 kids to collect it….
As reported in Reuters few days ago B of I just completed a loan sale to GE perhaps next time GE is doing business with irish taxpayer someone can have a “word” regarding overly aggressive collection methods by it’s sub prime lending unit.
“Bank of Ireland also sold a portfolio of project finance loans with total commitments of 670 million euros to GE Energy Financial Services . The loans relate to a portfolio of energy assets across North America, the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/bankofireland-disposals-idUSL5E7LE2WZ20111014