13,000 mortgage holders cynically sold down the river by our Government

national | anti-capitalism | other press Sunday February 16, 2014 23:43 by fred

Stephen Donnelly, in an aticle in the independent has highlighted the government's complete lack of interest in the 13,000 mortgage holders from Irish Nationwide. In an excellent article he bares the reality of how current government's neo liberal ideology takes precedence over the suffering of families in mortgage arrears and how foreign vulture capitalists are allowed to get a large discount on these houses but the families actually living in them and supporting the local economy are prevented from getting the option of such a discount

Here is a quote from the article:

The Government is about to throw 13,000 Irish families to the vultures.

In just a few weeks, their mortgages, taken out with Irish Nationwide Building Society, are to be sold to the highest international bidders. But the Government, in an act of raw stupidity and vandalism, is expressly forbidding the families from bidding for their own loans.

The mortgages will be sold off in batches of several thousand, and bought by foreign fund managers, eager for a home for their clients' money. The performing mortgages will be bundled together and sold at a discount of about 10 per cent. The less attractive ones, like those in arrears or serious negative equity, could be sold at discounts of 50 per cent or more.

For the purposes of this article, let's assume that John manages a fund on Wall Street, and is one of the lucky buyers. Here's what's coming for the families. Let's say you've a mortgage with €300k left to pay on it, and that you're fully up to date on your payments. John has just bought your mortgage for €270k – but you still owe him the full €300k. You'll still pay, and John will bring €30k in profit back to New York. You could have refinanced the mortgage