Buyers can flip State-backed apartments and keep profits

Seen and heard: the new Croí Cónaithe scheme, mortgage demand and TransferMate’s valuation

A clause in the new €450 million State subsidy plan for developers will allow people who purchase apartments through the scheme to pocket as much as 80 per cent of any profit from a quick resale if they choose to flip the property, the Business Post has learned.It comes as fresh pressure is placed on the government to scrap the scheme by the opposition, who labelled it a “bonanza for developers” and the “craziest housing scheme any minister with responsibility for housing has brought before us”, the Business Post reports.

The new Croí Cónaithe scheme, which will subsidise the cost of building apartments by providing developers with subsidies of between €25,000 and €144,000 per unit, has been created by the government to help stimulate the construction of apartments. New details of the scheme released to developers by the Housing Agency have now revealed that purchasers cannot be stopped from quickly reselling the homes and keeping the vast bulk of any profit made, with only a small clawback of the subsidy required if properties are quickly resold.

New financing round pushes TransferMate valuation over $1bn

TransferMate Global Payments has agreed a $70m fundraising round, pushing its valuation to $1 billion and making it the latest Irish company to attain so-called unicorn status, according to a report in the Sunday Independent. The Kilkenny firm, part of Terry Clune’s fast growing CluneTech group, is a global provider of business-to-business payments infrastructure.

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Government scrambles to avoid further price hikes amid emergency power supply plans

The government is scrambling to find alternative ways to pay for emergency power generators that would avoid the costs being passed on to homes and businesses, the Business Post reported. One source said that the prospect of consumers’ bills being increased to pay for the emergency measures to prevent winter blackouts at a time of already high energy inflation would be “politically explosive” and that work was under way to prevent it.

High demand for Avant mortgages is leading to delays

Avant Money is experiencing "significant delays" in processing mortgage applications as it struggles to meet demand, according to a number of sources in the home loan market, a report in the Sunday Independent stated. It is understood that several lenders are currently experiencing delays at various stages of the mortgage process due to high demand from home buyers and switchers, in addition to staffing shortages.