Derek Quinlan Retires from Quinlan Private

Derek Quinlan has decided to step down as the head of the high profile Irish property investment firm, Quinlan Private. Today's Irish Times reports that the 61 year old has "withdrawn from a management role within the firm in recent times to focus on his personal investments. He has also been spending more time at his homes in London and France."

The piece by Simon Carswell continues: "Quinlan Private gained a reputation for attracting cash-rich investors into high-profile property deals financed with high levels of bank borrowings and completed in quick transactions. The global economic slump and financial crisis has forced banks to seek renegotiated loan agreements with Quinlan Private – and Mr Quinlan on his own personal investments – due to falling values across the property markets."

There is no doubt that the myth of the 'canny Irish property investor' which circulated the planet in the late nineties and early noughties, was to a great extent propagated by the many headline deals struck by Quinlan and his group, albeit that many of these deals were struck at, or close to, the peak of the market.

According to the Times piece: "The company came to international prominence in 2004 when Mr Quinlan led a group of Irish investors to buy the luxury Savoy hotel group in London for €1.1 billion." He has also become well known for high profile deals such as the Four Seasons in Budapest, Santander in Madrid, Canary Wharf in London and expensive personal and business investments in Manhattan and around New York.

Those with a slightly jaundiced view of the world may well say that Quinlan has, much like Bertie Ahern, waited until things have gotten tough to leave the mess for someone else to clean up. He is, however, not leaving the company completely. The Times reports that "the former tax inspector will remain a significant investor with the company which will continue to be managed by its four existing partners – Olan Cremin, Peter Donnelly, Thomas Dowd and Mark O’Donnell."

The piece concludes: "Mr Quinlan has been trying to sell properties including a house in Manhattan for €23 million and offices, also in New York city, for €19 million and has reduced the prices in a bid to secure sales. He has recently been involved in negotiations with some of his banks about his investments."

Pieces on Quinlan's retirement in the Irish Times can be found here and here.

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Overseas Property Investment - Flipping

We're delighted to announce that Independent Overseas Property Expert, Diarmaid Condon, is submitting a series of articles on overseas property investment for the overseas property advice section of our site.

Flipping is the most contentious means of investing in property. This is, essentially, the process of putting a down-payment on a property off-plan and then selling it before taking ownership.

It is also often also often used to refer to selling a property on shortly after taking possession but, in this case, the investor gets caught for full capital gains tax which a proper ‘property flipper’ would seek to avoid. Avoiding the capital gains tax is, incidentally, illegal in most countries, Ireland included, but it was still a very common form of investment until the beginning of the current economic crisis.

So far so good, but then of course everything is generally rosy until you go to actually sell that wonderful profit centre (overseas property) you purchased. As a lot of people have found out, all may not be quite as simple as the commission driven salesman would have you believe.

If you are considering investing in overseas property then this mini-series of articles on the main ways to invest, and what types of overseas property products are on the market, is an absolute must.

You'll find the full informative piece here.

Simple Overseas Property Update

Rathfarnham based Simple Overseas Properties was back in court again in mid-July for having failed to pay an agreed sum of €368,000 to Cyril McMorrow. McMorrow is a disgruntled overseas property investor who had taken the company to court, claiming that it had failed to deliver off-plan properties in Spain as specified to him in oral agreements. The court found in favour of Mr. McMorrow back in April but he took Simple back to court in July as the agreed payments had not materialised.

The Irish Times report states; 'Peter Finlay SC, for Mr McMorrow, yesterday asked that judgment be entered in default because the defendants had not complied with the terms of the agreement. One payment had been made in relation to costs but nothing had been paid to Mr McMorrow, Mr Finlay said.'

This isn't a particularly new story, it ran in the Irish Times on July 19th, but we've been on hols for a while so we're a bit slow on the uptake at the minute. You'll find the full Irish Times report on the court case here.