Mortgage Losses May Push Irish Banks Over The Edge

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mortgage-losses-may-well-push-banks-over-the-edge-2343598.html

Thanks to R+R for the link.

Now the facts about the house price crash in Ireland can no longer be papered over.

It's happening in NI too and eventually the EAs will own up to it and advise vendors to drop or they will not sell.

How long can this be kept from their near neighbours in the UK mainland?

Rock On

Edited September 19, 2010 by Tamara De Lempicka

[Guest_James Toney_*]

i hope not long, but you never know, could be different this time

[NEO72]

If Irish prices have fallen by 50% and their banks haven't gone under, why are some on here saying that in the uk prices 'won't be allowed to fall' as it would break the banks? What's the difference-are UK banks more exposed to property?

[interestrateripoff]

Surely you mean it will push the Irish Taxpayer over the edge?

[_w_]

Surely you mean it will push the Irish Taxpayer over the edge?

This is what I find strange in the the bit of article shown. No mention of the taxpayers.

The Irish Banks have tipped over the edge some time ago. It's the taxpayers that are about to follow them now hence the talk of default and debt restructuring.

Why doesn't the independent describe things as they are?

[Laura]

Silly Irish - If only they had a BOE with a QE digit creation button

[Freeholder]

Irish residenrial mortgage debt will have overtaken the size of the republics GDP this year. Even if they had their own central bank that situation is not recoverable in the context of a 75% fall in underlying asset values. The Irish mortgage lenders are destroyed.

[Bootsox]

As quoted above but truly startling:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mortgage-losses-may-well-push-banks-over-the-edge-2343598.html

"Now consider some of the facts: while precise figures are no longer available most analysts now reckon that house prices have fallen by at least 50 per cent from their early-2007 peak. And they're still falling, with a survey of estate agents published in the Irish Independent this week concluding that house prices dropped by a further 9 per cent in the first half of 2010. For what it is worth, the emerging consensus is that house prices could fall by a further 50 per cent from their current levels, ie a cumulative 75 per cent drop from peak to trough."

Also, “euro 99bn of mortgages to Irish residents on their books”. The population of the Republic is almost 4.5 million people. So that is equivalent to a mortgage debt of £18,500 for every man, woman and child.

Wonder what the equivalent UK figure is?

Edited September 19, 2010 by Bootsox

[Freeholder]

As quoted above but truly startling:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mortgage-losses-may-well-push-banks-over-the-edge-2343598.html

"Now consider some of the facts: while precise figures are no longer available most analysts now reckon that house prices have fallen by at least 50 per cent from their early-2007 peak. And they're still falling, with a survey of estate agents published in the Irish Independent this week concluding that house prices dropped by a further 9 per cent in the first half of 2010. For what it is worth, the emerging consensus is that house prices could fall by a further 50 per cent from their current levels, ie a cumulative 75 per cent drop from peak to trough."

Also, “euro 99bn of mortgages to Irish residents on their books”. The population of the Republic is almost 4.5 million people. So that is equivalent to a mortgage debt of £18,500 for every man, woman and child.

Wonder what the equivalent UK figure is?

I make it about £20,000.