Kennedy Wilson, a major buyer of Irish properties and one of Bank of Ireland's biggest shareholders, has stated that Ireland has improved "100 percent" in the last two years.
"And if you think back to when we first started looking, Ireland, as I've said, is a 100 per cent better place than it was two years ago -- both psychologically and economically," Kennedy Wilson boss William McMorrow told investors last week, according to the Irish Independent.
Last year the California based company joined with Fairfax and Wilbur Ross to buy a 35 percent stake in Bank of Ireland in a €1.1bn deal and it hooked up with Deutsche Bank to buy a €1.3bn portfolio of loans from Bank of Ireland.
McMorrow said he was confident that the Irish market would improve over the course of the next three years.
"If you can kind of take a perspective of looking out three years, maybe five, but three for sure, you don't have any new construction going on there," he said.
"And so if you've got a growing user base of these companies that are continuing to grow, they've got a really great education system in Ireland, and it's particularly not only the tax rates, but it's attractive to particularly these US companies, half the population in Ireland is under 35.
"And so it's the only EU country I think in the last 10 years that's got a positive population growth," he said.
He added, "When you look at all of those factors -- and with no new construction -- it's my opinion that three to five years from now, you're going to actually see higher rental rates in the office market as well as what's clearly happening in the apartment market."
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.casualMBA | Nov 15, 2012, 07:51 PM EST
As an investor, I would be happy too, with an 85 Billion loan in place to keep Ireland afloat while it repays investors for its real estate bubble. Ireland is securing its collateral and credit ratings before nations. Unfortunately, while the Irish People re-define themselves as a nation once again, their government continues to ignore the REAL real estate bubble as a free nation, namely the ocnfiscated Fitzgerald lands in the southwest,
daisy3 | Nov 15, 2012, 04:17 PM EST
Baloney...just be yourself and try to catch a few Des Bishop concerts on dvd or you tube!!!
Scrivner | Nov 15, 2012, 02:24 PM EST
Perhaps the net population gain is due to immigration being greater than emmigration? Despite all the complaining seen posted on IC, things must be much worse in Poland, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, etc. Outsiders see value where the natives only see cost.
kennedy23 | Nov 15, 2012, 12:51 PM EST
CitizenWhy backward, savage comment get a grip you muppet
CitizenWhy | Nov 15, 2012, 10:54 AM EST
The recent murder of a mother by refusing her an abortion should make investors wary of investing in such a backward, savage country.
Portia777 | Nov 15, 2012, 09:26 AM EST
And so it's the only EU country I think in the last 10 years that's got a positive population growth," Why population growth with so many emigrating? unless he is calculating the money created from each live birth for the trustees.??