NAMA, or the National Asset Management Agency is managing loans secured by 13,200 Irish homes. The Agency recently confirmed that 9,200 of these homes were being rented which makes NAMA one of the largest landlords in the country, though of course it is normally the developers or receivers that are the direct landlords. NAMA wasn’t saying very much about the remaining 4,000 homes in its portfolio, and today, Sinn Fein’s finance spokesperson, Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, what was happening to these other homes – were they available for rent or sale or were they being kept vacant for some reason.
And the answer that came from the Asset Management Agency via the Minister was….
“the further breakdown sought by the Deputy is not currently available. As I stated in my response of 22 May {PQ 24849/12}, NAMA is currently engaged in an extensive analyses of the residential portfolio under the control of its debtors and receivers and this is expected to continue for some time”
So the Asset Management Agency – which has invested almost €1m in an asset management software system, and which directly employs over 210 people, most of whom work in portfolio management – doesn’t know the status of one third of its Irish residential portfolio!
Many years ago, I worked alongside a colourful Texan when he took over a subsidiary company and called in the Human Resources people and asked them how many people were employed at the subsidiary’s location. HR didn’t precisely know, so the Texan ordered all the employees outside to the car park for a headcount, which alongside the absent through sickness and holiday gave him his answer. HR looked like a bunch of eejits. A little like NAMA today. The Minister nominally responsible for NAMA doesn’t look very smart either.
Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, the National Asset Management Agency will be able to work out the rent/sale/vacancy status of one third of its Irish residential portfolio.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Begs the question as to whether Nama have any clue about the rent/sale/vacancy status of all the shopping centres, invidual shops, offices etc in its commercial portfolio.