Soden: Nama intervention would bring 'wonderful factor of greed' back to property market

Nama should have the responsibility of establishing a base price for property in Ireland, the former CEO of Bank of Ireland said today.

The bad bank should be made to make a call on pricing, in order to help the economy recover, Mike Soden said today.

He said that new personal insolvency rules, due to come into law later in the year, are likely to run into difficulty, because banks, some of which are private, and others public, will be asked to follow the same rules.

His comments come as ratings agency Fitch said that the new rules will not help the vast majority of those in mortgage debt, who might be looking for debt forgiveness.

Soden said that Nama should act to invigorate the market, therefore helping people in debt.

"The easiest solution, in my judgement, is that Nama has got the responsibility of establishing a base price, or a floor price, for property in the country," he said.

"Because if you woke up tomorrow morning and the headlines in the Thursday property section of the newspapers read that property prices had increased by 10%, the wonderful factor of greed would re-enter the marketplace, and you would find that there is a turn in the marketplace."