Hi °C | Lo °C CENTRAL Bank governor Patrick Honohan has delivered for the Government with the promissory note deal.
Now he wants the Government to deliver something else in return; a properly functioning property market.
It's a big ask.
To this end, Prof Honohan organised a conference yesterday on how to restore some sanity to our dysfunctional housing market. The former academic was looking for evidence for the Central Bank's view that the banks need to start repossessing houses from some investors. He got it.
"Will a release of repossessed or surrendered property into the market depress prices further or will instead the increased number of transactions relieve uncertainty and help the market to finally find a price floor?" Prof Honohan asked. If the Governor really didn't know the answer, he might well have been persuaded by IMF expert Michael Moore who told the conference that putting repossessed properties back into a market could help turn it around.
Mr Moore pointed to Arizona where he said the pace at which arrears ends up in foreclosure is three times higher than in New York and in Florida.
That sounds brutal but the good news is that Arizona appears to be getting back on its feet, with construction rebounding.
The question now is when will we go beyond the rhetoric?
Irish Independent
