Prospective home purchasers are losing out to cash buyers – mostly overseas investors – on apartments with defects, ranging from minor issues to hazardous faults, because banks will not risk lending to people so they can buy them.
Irish Times journalist Jade Wilson tells In the News about her investigation which found that mortgage-approved buyers are unable to buy second-hand apartments that require remediation works as banks are unwilling to lend on them due to uncertainty around a Government scheme to fix them.
Apartments built between 1991 and 2013 found not to be compliant with fire regulations or identified as having defects are being sold exclusively to cash buyers who have factored in potential future remediation costs, and can buy the apartments at reduced prices due to fewer buyers.
The Government has promised to introduce a €2.5 billion remediation scheme to fix up to 100,000 defective Celtic Tiger-era apartment blocks - many of the developers who built these projects are no longer in business - so that ultimately, the taxpayer is on the hook for the cost.
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Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
