Paddy Kelly, developer, to speak about housing crisis, public meeting this evening

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Next Wednesday, 29th November, the Hibernia Forum will hold another evening discussion, this time on the current housing situation, with Q & A and then drinks afterwards. Housing expert Karl Deeter (pictured, left) and developer Paddy Kelly (right) will talk to us and offer the perspective of the building industry and of landlords. The event will be held in Buswell’s Hotel on Kildare Street, Dublin 2 from 7pm to 9pm.

Among other things we will look at how our planning process is too complicated and prolonged and is holding up much-needed housing and investment. Karl has done a study of house prices in Dublin over the past decades and has some interesting contributions to make. Business consultant Paul Molloy will also speak, on the topic of tax breaks for developers.

The meeting is open to the public and attendees can make a contribution from the floor. It will be an important, open and hopefully constructive discussion.
 
This should be an interesting meeting.

Fintan O'Toole spent a day with Paddy Kelly and wrote a great account of it here:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/rise-and-fall-of-a-tiger-tycoon-1.623119

At the height of the boom the property developer Paddy Kelly was worth €350 million. Now he's €350 million in debt. Yet he still drives a BMW, lives in 'a lovely house', and admires Anglo Irish Bank. He spends a day with FINTAN O'TOOLE

I MEET PADDY KELLY on St Stephen’s Green and get into the huge, tank-like 7-series BMW he bought in 2003 for €139,000. Naively, perhaps, I am a little surprised to see a Nama-bound property developer still driving such a fine car.

At the height of the property boom, he tells me later, he was worth about €350 million. Now he owes the banks roughly the same amount – a €700 million reversal of fortune in three years.

As we set out on a day-long tour of some of the buildings through which he made and lost that fortune I ask how he’s managing for money. “I have no credit cards. I have to use my wife Maureen’s.” But he does not seem too bothered. “I suppose people think I’m having a tough time, but I’m not. I’ve never had a tough time in my life.”
 
That was a very interesting article, and I have to admire the man.

"“We,” he says, meaning the property developers, “were just jockeys.” The banks always owned the horses, and everything else was “an illusion. There was no real wealth made. The big issue is why should an ordinary person, running along with their lives, have to pay for my mistakes? Why does Brian Lenihan have the right to get everyone to guarantee this debt?”

Sorry I can't make it.
 
Hello Mr. Burgess,

Thank you for posting. Sadly I cannot make this, but I imagine it will be very interesting.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how much the road tax costs on a BMW 7-series?

As it's an older model 7-series, I would guess that the road tax could be €1,000 pa (or more), which seems a lot of money to be spending on road tax, when you're broke.


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