Short Sale Loans or Negative Equity Loans

We were asked to make a presentation to the Department of Finance’s ‘Expert Group on Mortgage Arrears’ which is made up of the main interest groups and representative bodies in finance and housing. This firm has long been an advocate of market oriented solutions (short sales, moving paper etc.). However, in Ireland there are several issues.

Firstly, short-sales are not possible because of the manner in which recourse to the loan exists, it is on the person and not just the asset, this gives no incentive to lenders to accept a short sale except for people who are already financially strong, our debt laws also work against the borrower.

Secondly, as a shareholder in the banks it may not be in the interest of the shareholder (taxpayer) to bail out the individual, personally I don’t want to continue to shoulder costs for anybody, not our banks, borrowers or anybody else, I want taxes to go toward vital services and not much else. Any scheme should be revenue neutral or profitable.

That is where the idea …

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