Environment Minister to run rule over badly planned assets

THE Environment Minister will have powers to debate the value of NAMA-bound assets if sites were bought on the basis of bad planning or questionable zoning.

Under the draft legislation, the agency will also have to consult the new National Transport Authority to assess the likely impact of future infrastructure developments on property prices.

And the board members of NAMA will be required to have specialist expertise in planning, accountancy, economics, valuation or risk management.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said these provisions represented key victories for the Green Party in the drafting of the NAMA bill.

He said some of the excessive zoning in the country was “patently mad” and this would be the common denominator running through the most devalued assets NAMA will take off the banks.

“The biggest discount is going to be particularly on land that was zoned where we don’t think the value is real.

“Our analysis is that there is such an extent of over zoning in recent years, right across the country, that the bank may have an asset... saying it is zoned land and is therefore worth X and the developer probably bought it on that basis... but we think the zoning is probably agricultural value,” he said.

Mr Ryan said the Government could not be afraid of enforcing large discounts on the loans NAMA is buying. Banks and developers would have to admit they got it wrong on speculation.

Similarly county councils would have to amend bad decisions in future development plans, he said.

“The county development plans may be saying one thing but those are not accurate, are not real and may be showing that you have land that is zoned for 50 years of growth,” Mr Ryan said.

However, he said the zoning considerations will not be used to warp public planning to maximise the value of NAMA’s assets.

And he rejected claims the rulings of the Environment Minister over the next six months may devalue people’s houses if it was decided the initial zoning was wrong.

In a lunchtime briefing Mr Ryan also revealed the genesis of the NAMA bill was drafted at extraordinary speed since January when there was a series of “scary” meetings.

He said it had been an achievement to produce such complicated legislation in such a short time.

And he revealed the Greens had particular concerns about the planning elements from early on but satisfied these were addressed after discussions between with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and the Attorney General.

Mr Ryan said ideologically the Green Party would have no problem buying up more shares in the banks if capital was required, but nationalisation of the banking sector was not an option.