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Every county in Ireland has farmland affected by a vulture fund presence, extensive analysis by the Irish Farmers Journal of 8,727 documents received from the Land Registry under the Freedom of Information Act shows.
Mayo has the highest amount of acreage held by vulture funds in Ireland with a total of 18,957ac.
Galway has the second highest – with 3,037ac – followed by Meath with 1,119ac.
Mortgages held by Promontoria, Mars Capital, Pepper Finance, Stepstone Mortgages, Shoreline Mortgages and Start Mortgages were all reviewed as part of the investigation – many are subsidiaries of US-based vulture funds Cerberus and Lone Star.
The total acreage comes to 28,285ac, and the varying size of land parcels means that it represents just 285 land parcels. However, research indicates that the number of farmers affected by bank loan sales is likely to be much higher.
Pillar banks have engaged in large-scale loan sales since the economic crash, with Ulster Bank selling a €2.5bn loan portfolio in 2016 to US vulture fund Cerberus – 5% of which were farm loans. AIB and Permanent TSB sold loan portfolios containing farm loans as recently as this year.
While many farmers contacting the Irish Farmers Journal have admitted that they over-reached in terms of their ability to repay loans, they have expressed distress at their subsequent dealings with vulture funds and appointed receivers.
A number of farmers have reported difficulty in engaging with vulture funds to re-negotiate loan terms or forced land sales.
Farmers have also expressed their anxiety over a preference vulture funds seem to have for selling land rather than working on new loan terms.
New legislation to strengthen the Central Bank’s control over vulture funds is currently being worked on by the Government.
However, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has previously stated that he cannot intercede on potential loan sales and banks have not ruled out future loan sales.
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