Half of the applications will be approved by end of week

The board of Þórkatla real estate company has now approved the purchase of 263 properties in Grindavík and the owners of the properties concerned have received confirmation of approval. The approved applications have been sent to the purchase agreement which can take up to ten working days.

This is stated in a notice from the company.

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"It is understandable that patience is running low"

The company also says that the total amount of transactions approved by the board of Þórkatla amounts to ISK 20 billion. The aim is to approve the purchase of 100 more properties this week, which is roughly half of all applications that have been received by Þórkatla. A total of 732 applications have been received.

Try to make the process work fast

“Contracts with lenders were finally concluded this weekend, which enables Þórkatla to handle more cases than before. We are trying to move the process quickly, but it’s expected that there will be issues that need to be examined more closely, and it will take longer to conclude some purchases. For example, in some cases, the fire insurance assessment of properties has increased significantly since November, requiring closer inspection. There are also examples of properties registered as unfinished and not receiving a final audit, although several years have passed since construction.

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"Now we'll be on the street"

The completion of Þórkatla’s purchase of assets in Grindavík has been carried out using electronic means, with an electronic purchase agreement and electronic parliamentary documentation. About thirty people are involved in the company’s work in some way, but the project is carried out in cooperation with several institutions,” the announcement states.

Can buy back the assets later

“We are taking over these assets from Grindvíkings now, but the goal is that those who want to can buy them back later. Previous owners can buy them at the same terms or 95% of the fire insurance assessment, as stipulated by the regulation. We are also assuming that people can rent them from us in the meantime. We hope to cooperate with the community on these issues,” the company’s CEO Örn Viðar Skúlason stated in the announcement.