A court decision to appoint a liquidator to one of Ireland’s leading developers has raised concerns that the country’s banks could be hit by deeper property loan writedowns.

Bankers and fund managers expressed fears that a fire sale of the properties owned by Liam Carroll, as lenders seek to be repaid, could drive prices down for all property assets just as the government is poised to take over the troubled property loans of the main banks, under its plan to form a bad bank agency.