THERE’S NO PLEASING some people. The latest Nama deferred-payment scheme announced this week generated measured responses from the usual suspects.

Designed to encourage house buyers to enter the market while protecting them from any fall in value, Nama stumps up 20 per cent of the mortgage. However, Piba, the representative body for independent financial brokers, came out immediately and said it didn’t go “nearly far enough”, while also taking a swipe at the length of time it took to come up with the offering.

Instead, it is calling on the Government and banks to come up with a “prudent lending policy” that might even see the banks “operate on a break-even basis for a number of years”. And can we expect mortgage brokers to operate on a break-even basis too?

The Chartered Surveyors of Ireland was more tentative in its reaction to the news.

It “cautiously welcomed” the pilot scheme, but said it would wait to see how it unfolds in practice before making a “definitive assessment”. Steady as she goes, lads.

Meanwhile, Ipav, the auctioneers and valuers body, took a similar “wait and see” line, welcoming it as a test case, but warning that “artificial interference in the housing market can cause unexpected problems elsewhere”.

It added that the scheme hasn’t made it any easier to get a mortgage. You can please some of the people