Fermanagh Housing Firm In Administration

A housing firm - responsible for a several upmarket housing developments in Fermanagh - has gone into administration.

According to a report by the BBC housing firm GP Williams owes the banks in the region of £30m.

The company’s accounts for the year ending December 2009 also revealed accumulated losses of almost £3m.

With its registered office in Belfast, GP Williams, has been trading for over a decade –since 2000.The firm has also built houses in Bangor, Belfast and Newtownabbey.

In September, Anglo Irish Bank appointed receivers to properties owned by the firm at Church Street in Irvinestown and Ardvarney Road in Ederney.

As well as Anglo Irish, the firm also had borrowings from AIB/ First Trust.


Since the property bubble burst in 2007 a series of builders and developers have gone bust, individuals have been declared bankrupt and thousands of construction jobs have been lost.

This news follows, by days, a recent survey that showed the Northern Ireland house prices are continuing to fall.

Data collected by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed that average house prices continued to fall after what is being described as a "difficult August" for the market.

It is predicted that house prices will continue to fall in the following months.

Tom McClelland of RICS said houses were selling, but at prices not "seen for seven or eight years".

A separate survey said that activity in Ireland’s construction sector has seen it lowest point, in over a year, following low orders and weak client confidence.

Construction remained the economy's weakest sector in September, with activity falling at its sharpest pace in 16 months.

The survey from Markit economics and Ulster Bank revealed that a further in drop new orders and continuing lay-offs has saw the sector flounder.

Both housing activity and civil engineering projects decreased at a faster pace in September, while commercial activity decreased at the weakest pace since April.

(LB/CD)