Dubai and Dublin share a common debt problem in real estate

Dubai and Dublin are many thousands of miles apart on different continents but the property crashes that have afflicted both cities have left a similar legacy in terms of debt mountains and a question mark remains over how this issue will be resolved.

Since peaking out in 2007 Dublin real estate has lost 40-50 per cent of its value, and many once wealthy developers are now left with huge debts to the banks and negative equity positions. The central bank is trying to organize property debt into one ‘bad’ bank to try to cleanse the system but as times improve banks or the ‘bad’ bank will increasingly call in these loans.