Special Report 120 - NAMA: progress on achievement of objectives as at end 2024
The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) was established in December 2009 as a key part of the State’s response to the 2008 banking crisis. The purposes and functions of NAMA are specified in the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 (the NAMA Act). The core idea was for NAMA to acquire property-related loans from the commercial banks, to hold and manage those loans and related collateral — mainly property — and ultimately to dispose of all those assets in a manner that best protected the State’s interests. NAMA would then be wound down.
As directed by the Minister for Finance in 2021, NAMA commenced a phased and orderly wind down. NAMA is working with the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) to transfer any residual assets or activity to an NTMA Resolution Unit at a date to be specified by the Minister for Finance once the required cessation legislation is in place.
Section 226 of the NAMA Act requires the Comptroller and Auditor General to assess, every three years, NAMA’s progress toward achieving its overall objectives. This is the fifth progress report. The report considers NAMA’s progress in the achievement of its objectives up to the end of 2024, and provides some information on relevant matters that occurred up to the date of reporting.
Loans and related NAMA debt
NAMA paid a total of €31.8 billion to acquire property-related loans from five financial institutions. The acquisition was funded by the issuance of guaranteed senior debt (€30.2 billion) and subordinated debt (€1.6 billion).
The value of NAMA debtors’ loan balances had reduced from €28 billion at end 2010 to around €96 million at end 2024. This was primarily achieved through loan/asset sales, with some loans discharged in full by borrowers. The residual loans, at end 2024, were secured by assets primarily located in Ireland.
NAMA repaid all of its €30.2 billion senior debt by the end of October 2017. The subordinated debt of €1.6 billion was fully redeemed in March 2020. This marked the full and final repayment of the total €31.8 billion debt incurred within the targeted redemption timeline.
Cost recovery
Apart from a net loss incurred in 2010, its first year of operation, NAMA has generated a net profit each year. The NAMA Board set a strategic objective for the recovery of all costs without recourse to further borrowing. NAMA met this objective.
At end 2025, NAMA projected its lifetime surplus would amount to €5.15 billion by the time it has been wound up. This comprises two elements: cash transfers to the Exchequer, and asset transfers to the Land Development Agency (LDA) and to the NTMA Resolution Unit.
- NAMA transferred a total of €4.25 billion to the Exchequer between 2020 and 2024. In December 2025, NAMA transferred a further €450 million to the Exchequer, bringing its total surplus transfer to €4.7 billion.
- NAMA transferred a subsidiary company with a net asset value of €356 million to the LDA on 1 July 2025. It also transferred €68 million of property assets to the LDA in September 2025.
Rate of return
NAMA has a statutory objective (section 10 of the NAMA Act) to obtain the “best achievable financial return for the State”. How the financial return was to be measured was not prescribed.
The internal rate of return (IRR) is a standard performance metric for property related investments. NAMA did not set a target IRR for its operations.
When NAMA was acquiring the loans from the participating institutions, it projected the cash flows expected to occur over the lives of the loans. It discounted these cash flows at an average rate of 5% to yield the loan acquisition values. If the cash flows had turned out exactly as projected at the time, NAMA would have generated an IRR on its investment of 5%.
As part of this examination, the projected IRR on NAMA’s overall operations over its lifetime was estimated to be around 6.8%, based on the financial information available at end 2024. Given the increase in projected lifetime surplus reported by NAMA at the end of 2025, the final IRR may be marginally higher than 6.8%.
This outcome represents a moderately better lifetime performance than was anticipated when NAMA acquired its portfolio of loans from the participating financial institutions.
Commercial property
In 2014, NAMA adopted a secondary objective — the facilitation of the development of office accommodation in Dublin.
The Dublin Docklands Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) planning scheme was approved in 2014. At the time, NAMA had an interest in 75% of the land remaining to be developed in the zone. The NAMA Board approved a strategic business plan for the sites. The business plan did not include formal targets in respect of the stated objectives.
By end December 2024, all developments on the Dublin Docklands SDZ sites that NAMA had an interest in were classified as completed and/or sold. NAMA’s involvement resulted in the delivery of 393,000 square metres (m2) of commercial space and 2,183 residential units on these sites. The disposal of NAMA’s interests in these developments generated surpluses, which contributed to NAMA’s overall lifetime surplus.
Separately, the Poolbeg West SDZ, comprising several industrial sites or formerly industrial sites, included two large adjacent sites which were secured to NAMA. The latter sites had the potential to provide up to 3,800 residential units and approximately 93,000 m2 of commercial space. In June 2021, a development consortium acquired an 80% shareholding in the company that owns the sites for €200 million. NAMA retained a minority 20% shareholding in the company until June 2023, when it sold its interest to the development consortium.
Commercial housing delivery
- Direct housing unit delivery by NAMA
In November 2015, the NAMA Board formally adopted a residential unit delivery plan. This set out its intention to “provide funding, coordinate and manage the delivery of 20,000 housing units by end 2020”. The plan recognised that achieving the delivery target would be a challenge.
NAMA did not achieve the residential output target. By end 2021, it had delivered 11,049 units on sites in which it had an interest. This represented delivery of 55% of the target, a year later than originally projected.
In its strategic plan 2022 – 2025, NAMA set a new target of delivering 1,800 residential units in Dublin and its surrounding areas. The target delivery for the period was revised annually by the NAMA Board and currently stands at 1,395 units.
NAMA delivered 1,294 residential units in the period 2022 to 2024.
Between Q4 2015 and end 2024, NAMA delivered a total of 12,343 residential units on sites in which it held an interest.
- Housing unit delivery on sites sold
NAMA considers that, in monitoring the achievement of its residential delivery, it is appropriate to also take account of units constructed on sites sold by NAMA debtors/receivers. However, where sites have been sold, NAMA has no control over when they are developed and does not provide loans for construction.
NAMA estimated that sites sold by NAMA debtors/receivers by end 2024 had the potential to deliver 105,000 residential units. By end 2024, an estimated 27,108 units had been constructed on sites sold. This level of delivery represents just 26% of the estimated overall capacity of the residential development sites sold by NAMA debtors/receivers to end 2024.
Social housing
NAMA acquired an interest in a number of residential property developments when it acquired the loans from the participating institutions. These developments included residential units in many locations and at different stages of completion. Some of the developments were considered to have the potential to meet demand for social housing. Ultimately, the responsibility for determining suitability rests with the local authorities and approved housing bodies (AHBs).
Early on, NAMA set a target of delivering 2,000 social housing units by the end of 2015, and this target was achieved. NAMA did not set a further delivery target for social housing units.
Within its portfolio, NAMA identified a total of 7,653 residential properties as potentially being suitable for social housing and offered to sell them to local authorities and AHBs. Just under 39% of these property offers were taken up.
By end 2024, NAMA had provided/committed a total of 2,957 units for social housing.
Just under half (1,366 or 46%) of the social housing units delivered by NAMA to end 2024 were acquired by its subsidiary company National Asset Residential Property Services DAC, which has leased the housing units to AHBs. In advance of the winding up of NAMA, the company and its stock of housing were transferred to the LDA on 1 July 2025. The value of that housing stock is included in the cumulative lifetime surplus referred to above.
