Call for banks to play their part in housing recovery

IRELAND’s discredited banks still hold a few keys to recovery in the housing market — and one is for them to agree settlement figures for those homeowners trapped in a negative equity bind.

That need, which has proved effective in the US, is being stressed in an address delivered today by the president of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute, Edward Carey. He also calls for the banks to pass on the full ECB interest rates cuts to buy-to-let investors.

According to Mr Carey: “International investors have little confidence in Irish banks and their level of exposure to commercial debt. Until the banks come clean and write down the extent of these and other toxic debts, the market is effectively held to ransom.”