Property developers: Dangers of relying on vulture fund recovery

Some of the big names behind the Irish bubble are coming back into the spotlight, but we need to be careful about the ‘globalisation’ of the property market, writes Michael Byrne

SINCE 2010 most big Irish developers have been out of action. Having fallen under Nama’s spell they existed in a twilight zone where they were allowed neither to perish nor to be let loose again .

Since 2014, however, the spell is weakening and some of the big names behind the Irish bubble are lurching back into action. The backdrop to this is the remarkable recovery of Irish commercial real estate — offices, retail units and development land have been selling like hot cakes — in large part driven by vulture funds.