The Sunday Independent - 14 September 2008
No Such Thing as Free Money in Property
Property developers giving away cars and loans seem generous. But there's no such thing as a free lunch, writes Louise McBride
Five years ago, if you had said that developers would offer "free" loans to would-be house buyers, most people would have thought you were joking. Yet, earlier this month, Glenkerrin Homes and Radora Developments - which is owned by property developer Bernard McNamara - announced they would offer interest-free loans to buyers.
With the Irish property market in freefall, developers are under pressure to sell houses. These loans are an attempt to get buyers - both first-time buyers and investors - to snap up some of the properties built by those developers.
David McCarthy, managing director of Galway Financial Consultants McCarthy & Associates, believes that nine out of 10 of those who sign up to these schemes will have to borrow money to repay the developer's loan. "These are the type of things that people jump into, and years down the road they run into problems and are not able to repay the loan", said McCarthy.
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Mon, 06 September 2010 
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