What utter crap. It doesn’t even need to be just social housing. There are young couples all over the place right now who could be buying or renting from the state some of these properties for a reasonable amount, putting some money back to cover the costs of NAMA. At least some societal good could come of the debacle instead of the empty apartments and ghost estates we have now.

Who is looking after these properties ? Surely not the original owners, whoever they may be. Many properties are getting wrecked and vandalized while our over paid so called rulers are (not) making decisions.

I say don’t take “No” for an answer – get publicly paid property into public ownership – not necessarily for social housing, or as free housing. What about CoOp housing ? and initiatives which will get people working and involved in their communities.

Forget about top down government – it’s ground up DIY now.

Also, given the possible substandard build quality of many of the properties and developments, the state may consider that these properties are unsuitable as social housing in the long term. In other words, they’ll be a money pit. It’s cost a load of money to bring them up to code, and a hell of a lot more money every year to stop them crumbling into ruins. Reallocating the properties from collateral to social housing may be another case of the developers getting off easy and the tax payer being shafted.

The government had no problem seize Anglo bank share when it was nationalised. Don’t recall any minister knocking on my door, asking if any loans were secured on my shares. Typical double standards.

This is one of the most sickening features of capitalism, the production of goods that are destroyed or put in storage to preserve prices rather than serve people’s needs.
We are in the unique position in our history of being able to wipe out homelessness in a matter of weeks.
Yet the state refuses to do so. It continues to pour masses of money into the pockets of gombeen landlords and b&b owners while tens of thousands of housing units stand idle while men, women and children sleep on the streets.
It’s fuckin lunacy!

It mightn’t be morally right, but it’s not as dumb as it sounds. If I have a house bought with a mortgage, and I appear for the moment that I’m cooperating, I’d hope the bank would be slow to repossess the house. NAMA are hedging their bets. If they allocate the properties to social housing, they’ll be writing off the possibility of either reclaiming the debts owed by the developer/owner, and also the possibility to sell them off and turn them into real cash. They’ll sit on the fence and avoid making a decision as, once the decision is made, they can’t go backwards, and the developer/owner is off the hook. The other option would be if NAMA sold some of the properties to the state, but that’d also create bad press, as the money would have to come out of some other department’s budget. They’ll wait until there’s no chance that the developer/owner will pay back what’s owed, and then they’ll be able to reallocate.

damn right why the hell should i pay through the nose for the kip im living in while some lazy bum gets a free house thats better than mine. Move to China if you want communism.

That’s right Jan
Let NAMA fund their cronies to the hilt to buy the good stuff.
Demolish the rest of the crap.
And bill us for the lot.

Down with that sorta thing!!!

Can’t wait for the begrudgers saying people should have a house off the state! Would u prefer them sleeping on the st