New apartment prices in parts of Dublin will have to be slashed before they can be sold, resulting in huge losses for the developers and Anglo Irish Bank, according to the PwC investigation into Anglo.

PwC found that, in south Dublin and Wicklow, there is already several years' supply of unsold apartments, and that "successful disposal of the current and 'pipeline' stock will take many years and appears unlikely to occur at current unit price levels".

The report also draws attention to the fact that sites bought to supply thousands of apartments in the area currently do not have planning permission because of local authority infrastructure and planning issues. This is likely to be a reference to Sandyford, where water supply and foul drainage systems cannot cope with the density of development planned. In addition there are significant water problems around the Shankill area, where thousands of houses were planned by developers.

Land prices in Sandyford rose from €3.2 million an acre in 2004 to €20 million an acre in 2005 as developers realised the local authority would allow them to build high-density apartments and office blocks in the area. However, they have slumped in value since then.

PwC also confirmed that Anglo is amortising distressed property loans because, if they were marked to market, "significant shortfalls would occur". The report states, "collateral values are a key consideration in the event of default leading to a forced/distressed sale. In accordance with IFRS, Anglo amortises these securities as IFRS does not permit a mark to market approach for such lending assets."