ON TUESDAY, we finally got some straight shooting on the Irish property market.

However it wasn’t from a bank or an estate agent or one of the multitude of developers who are working at the coal face.

Instead, listed agri-nutrition group Origin Enterprises, a spin-off from Aryzta (formerly IAWS), gave its verdict on the property market here in a trading update and it didn’t pull its punches.

Origin, whose brands include Shamrock, Roma and Odlums, announced a €105 million writedown in the value of its property assets, which are sites used by the business. This was net of tax. The gross figure was €135 million.

Bloxham analyst Joe Gill said this was to a “70 per cent adjustment from a 2007 valuation”.

In percentage terms, this was probably the steepest writedown in property value by an Irish corporate since the bubble burst here.

A SIMILARLY hefty writedown in property assets has been booked by BWM Property Ltd, part of the Blarney Woollen Mills group.

It owns one property on the Malahide Road in Dublin, which is leased to Meadows Byrne. The property has a long-term loan of €10.7 million with AIB.

According to accounts just filed by the company, the value of this property “has been reduced to €3 million”, with the group booking an impairment charge of €6.7 million.

BWM Property is in breach of its financial covenants and its bankers have “consented” to interest-only payments and a “moratorium in respect of capital repayments on its facilities”.

Auditor KPMG said BWM’s future as a going concern rested on access to working capital from its parent. The auditor also noted that its future was dependent on its ability to restructure borrowings or obtain further waivers before January 31st next.

The directors said they were “satisfied” that BWM would generate sufficient rental income to “discharge” its interest payments. It earned rental income in the year to the end of January 2008 of €488,750, although interest payments amounted to €585,210.