NAMA expects to return €4.25bn in cash to taxpayers

State agency generated €670m from its property portfolio last year

A further €1bn was transferred to the Exchequer last year.

State agency NAMA generated €670m in cash last year while funding the delivery of 23,155 new homes in Ireland, according to its 2021 progress report.

The National Asset Management Agency said it expects to report a full-year profit for 2021 – its 11th consecutive year of profitability.

Its successful year enabled NAMA to transfer €1bn cash from its lifetime surplus to the Exchequer during 2021, bringing total surplus cash remitted to the State to €3bn.

In addition, the Agency predicts that it will deliver a total surplus of €4.25bn to taxpayers. Including €400m corporate tax payments, NAMA’s total projected return to the State will be approximately €4.65bn.

The Agency has now transferred a total of €3.4bn cash to the State. This includes €3bn from its lifetime surplus and a further €400m in corporation tax payments.

“2021 was another year of strong performance by the Agency,” NAMA Chief Executive Brendan McDonagh said. “We continued to extract significant value from our residual portfolio, generating €670m cash during the year and reporting a nine-month profit of €130m.” On housing, NAMA said it has a further 2,600 units in the pipeline to be delivered.

“Our residential programme exceeded its 20,000 unit delivery target with over 23,000 new residential units facilitated and funded by NAMA to date,” said Aidan Williams, Chairman of NAMA.

Over 20,000 of these homes were facilitated by NAMA since 2015, and 13,185 of these were units funded directly by NAMA. The other 9,970 units were completed on sites where NAMA had funded planning permission, enabled works, and covered legal costs or holding costs prior to disposal.

The Agency also facilitated the creation of 2,687 social housing units across Ireland, providing homes for over 8,000 people. Half of NAMA’s social housing delivery has been facilitated through NAMA’s social housing vehicle, NARPS.

Approximately €350m has been invested by NAMA in the remediation, completion, or purchase of properties for social housing use.