Posts Tagged ‘corporate’

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM BELL & COMPANY

We are back at Bell & Company HQ on Rosemary Street and geared up for a fantastic 2016.

From all of the team here we sincerely wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2016 will be a successful and prosperous year for you.

From our stand point 2016 looks incredibly exciting. We have many cases for our Resolution, Corporate and Insolvency departments to finalise and complete excellent settlements. We also have a lot of enquiries from potential client’s so early in the year.

There are other external factors we are monitoring also.  This year we anticipate an interest rate rise. When? Who knows! There are so many conflicting reports. We would advise homeowners with mortgages and those with high levels of unsecured credit to consider how much loan repayment increases will affect their income and expenditure on a monthly basis.

The housing market continues to recover, albeit very slowly. Rises seem to be Belfast centric, this is something we will monitor but increases are not rapid enough to assist those in high levels of negative equity.

The Corporate Department are keeping a close eye on Investment Funds such as Cerberus and Lonestar and their increasing activity in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. We have an exciting meeting coming up later this month and this could be defining for dealing with these overseas loan book purchasers.

As always, should you or anyone you know require Independent Insolvency Advice then please call Bell & Company on +44 (0) 2895 217373 today. Our first initial consultation is free so we look forward to welcoming you to Rosemary Street for tea, coffee and a chat about resolving your debt burden.

Northern Ireland Repossession “Hotspots”

Following the setup of The Housing Repossession Taskforce they undertook a review of the market of property repossession in Northern Ireland and identified hotspots. These are listed below:

This demonstrates a “Belfast-centric” approach to the housing crisis in our opinion. As in England where everything is “London-centric” the same applies to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Many individuals in Belfast believe that the economy is improving and that as property prices are slowly increasing in the city then they must also be across the province. They could not be more wrong.

A real frustration for Bell & Company is when we negotiate with lenders either based in Belfast or mainland UK they cannot seem to understand the difference in circumstances or how the location of the property can effect a situation. These lenders also do not understand that when they repossess and sell a property in possession the effect it has on the surrounding area and as we often say to client’s the postcode is damaged and consequently home values are significantly affected in a negative manner.

Conversely when we can deal with local Banks, particularly with our corporate clients we can often see a more realistic approach undertaken by the Bank which is ultimately beneficial to all parties to agree a route forward.

As we have eluded to in previous blog posts when interest rates begin to increase from quarter two of 2016 we will see another surge in property repossessions and perhaps another detrimental effect on property prices in the Province. More “hotspots” will arise.

Bell & Company understand that those living in more rural areas will find it incredibly hard to deal with their negative equity situation but nonetheless we have helped many to move on with their lives and eradicate their debt problem. Our advisors are often on the road across Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland so please call the office today on +44 (0) 2890 517047 and see if we are in your area to arrange an appointment at a location to suit you. Or alternatively please sign up to our e-newsletter and be the first to be aware of our next network evening when our advisors will be on hand to discuss any debt matter.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Terry Bell – Director