Skip to main content

Halloween Chill - Irish Ghost Stories - Scary 'Ghost' Estates...

50,000 new homes lying empty in 'ghost' estates...


AT LEAST 50,000 newly-built homes are lying empty in 'ghost' estates across the country because of the economic downturn.

Hard-pressed developers and estate agents are being forced to drop their asking prices by as much as 50pc in a desperate effort to shift unwanted homes dotted across the country.

An Irish Independent investigation has also found that hundreds of housing estates which should have been completed at least two years ago are still unfinished.

Figures from local authorities show that county councils will not take responsibility for maintaining roads and open spaces in at least 300 estates because they have not been finished to the standard required by the planning permission.

The glut of empty homes -- many built under tax break schemes -- shows the pressures now being faced by homebuilders in the economic downturn.

Warned
House completions are at their lowest level in years and builders are putting off starting new homes until the market improves.

Thousands of potential homebuyers have also been refused access to credit, with many others deciding not to buy in the hope that prices will fall further.

The Irish Independent has found:

The situation is worst in the midlands, border counties and the west of Ireland. Many properties are in areas marketed as being close to Dublin and other major cities, but in fact are in rural areas.

There is up to 12 months' supply of homes currently empty -- twice what would be expected in a 'normal' market.

Rural villages, such as Rathcormac in Co Cork, are swamped with unsold real estate.

One developer has slashed asking prices by 50pc in an effort to sell properties.

Earlier this month, a report by Goodbody Economic Consultations found that 50,000 units had been built but not sold. It estimated there was 19 months of supply of second-hand homes for sale in Ireland. It concluded there could be a vacant stock of homes in the country in the order of 100,000 units.

While estate agents say that the market favours buyers, the Construction Industry Federation has warned that further prices cuts were unlikely.

"Prices have reduced by 30pc, and there isn't much scope for more cuts. A lot depends on the return to normal financial arrangements," a spokesman said.

Friends of the Irish Environment director Tony Lowes said the glut of new homes had "virtually emptied" some rural villages. "This has produced a very strong social impact because people living in these villages find they have no neighbours any more," he said.

The situation was criticised by the Labour Party, which said the pace of development in rural areas was "never sustainable".

"These estates were built by developers who clearly set out to make a profit and the position has changed. There should be no intervention in the housing market in what we would see as a normalisation process," the party's housing spokesman Ciaran Lynch said yesterday.

"This is developer-led, it was never sustainable. There's a difference between building housing estates and building communities."

Meanwhile, new figures show thousands of people have shown interest in securing a Government-backed mortgage which allows people on salaries of at least €40,000 to borrow up to €285,000 -- a maximum of 92pc of the value of the property -- from local authorities.

In one week, 4,500 people visited the Homechoice Loan website, with 583 registering an interest in availing of the scheme.


Report by Paul Melia, Stephen O'Farrell and Caitrina Cody - Irish Independent Newspaper.

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Celtic Tiger Excesses...

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

Property Tycoon's Dolce Vita Ends...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai

I fear a very different kind of property crash

While 80% of people over 40 own their own home just a third of adults under 40 do. This is disastrous for social solidarity and cohesion Changing this system of policymaking requires a government to act in a way that may be uncomfortable for some. Governments have a horizon of no more than five years, and the housing issue requires long-term planning. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was intended to tackle some of these problems. According to its website its remit is to “drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland by enhancing governance, building capacity and delivering effectively”. So how is the challenge of delivering homes for people in 2024 and beyond going to be met? The extent of the problem is visible in the move by companies, including Ryanair, to buy properties to house staff. Ryanair has, justifiably, defended its right to do so. IPAV has long articulated its views on how to improve supply an