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'Largely gone': Ghost estates are rapidly disappearing

South Dublin County Council is the first local authority area to have zero unfinished developments.

IN 2010 IRELAND had nearly 3,000 unfinished developments. Today that number is 420.

The ghost estates which epitomised Ireland’s property and economic crash are now “largely gone” says junior Housing Minister Damien English.

Speaking at the launch of the fifth annual progress report and seventh housing survey on tackling the issue of unfinished housing developments, English said the problem will not soon be forgotten, but the problem was nearly solved.

The report from the Department of Housing shows that there has been an 85% drop in the unfinished developments since 2010 from nearly 3000 to 420. 2016 alone saw the resolution of 248 developments.

The survey also found that 2,000 units are currently being utilised for social housing purposes.

English said that it was his objective to resolve all remaining unfinished housing developments “especially those within high market demand locations”.

The report shows that South Dublin County Council is the first local authority area to have zero unfinished developments.

English added:

“[It is my] objective for the following year is to bring back vacant units into reuse for social housing purposes with the potential acquisition or leasing of 1,300 vacant units as a major objective for 2017.”

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29 Comments
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    Mute Andy Harding
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    Mar 21st 2017, 5:45 PM

    And that’s the way it should be.

    117
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    Mute Bobby Connolly
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:15 PM

    Maybe I’m reading this wrong but have we renovated and finished the ghost estates and used them to help families and the homeless or were they simply demolished?

    111
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    Mute Aoife Dooley
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    Mar 21st 2017, 10:58 PM

    @Bobby Connolly: many have been bought by developers and sold to families.

    8
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    Mute SomeRandomIrishGuy
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:57 PM

    I have been living in a ghost estate for 7 years &it still hasn’t been touched by anyone. Probably because I’m living in Roscommon i actually don’t know…

    81
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    Mute Debbie Fahey
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    Mar 21st 2017, 10:08 PM

    @SomeRandomIrishGuy: You’ll soon have plenty of neighbors ;)

    32
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:00 PM

    Yep election on the way. .. Gotta believe FG now

    47
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    Mute Cora Brooks
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    Mar 22nd 2017, 11:53 AM

    @Willy Malone: what a load gotta believe in fg don’t you get they didn’t do anything they allowed vulture funds bankrupt developers who hid their money well to come back to the hkusing market with massibe write offs by a bad bank nama to buy up all these estates at knock down prices and let them and the likes of me and the many thousands of irish citizens will be paying for this cruption of ff/fh/lab for many years to co.e no health service poor housing stock and so on higher taxes on everything so yes you gotta believe

    3
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    Mute Colette Mullins
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:23 PM

    Obviously haven’t been to ballyvourney or macroom lately!!!!

    40
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    Mute William Grogan
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:06 PM

    @Colette Mullins: or Kinsale.

    20
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    Mute Cian O Donoghue
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:35 PM

    @William Grogan: Kinsale? Really? Where are they?

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    Mute William Grogan
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:42 PM

    @Cian Abbey Fort near the hospital. And you include the bomb site car park in the middle of the town that was supposed to be a shopping centre and hotel?

    9
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    Mute An_Beal_Bocht
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    Mar 21st 2017, 9:28 PM

    @William Grogan: there’s a hospital in Kinsale?

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    Mute Cian O Donoghue
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    Mar 21st 2017, 9:29 PM

    @William Grogan: The carpark wouldn’t count to be fair. Abbey Fort? Had forgotten that.

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    Mute William Grogan
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    Mar 21st 2017, 9:30 PM

    @An_Beal_Bocht: it’s now a nursing home.

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    Mute Brendan Geoghegan
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:43 PM

    Now, we just have ghosts living in estates.. seen only at night..gone by morning.. shadow of their former selves..

    25
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    Mute Gerard Creedon
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:32 PM

    Rip off house prices again in cork up 100 k in 2.5 years … What a joke

    27
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:00 PM

    Yep election on the way. .. Gotta believe FG now ☺

    22
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    Mute Cora Brooks
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    Mar 22nd 2017, 11:55 AM

    @Willy Malone:

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    Mute Adrian
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:07 PM

    Wouldn’t it be better if they were measuring progress as working towards zero homelessness, but these incompetent muppets are doing it ar$eways as usual.

    32
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    Mute Stephen Maher
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    Mar 21st 2017, 5:51 PM

    Rubbish, tallaght isn’t fully complete or fully inhabited.

    51
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    Mute danielplainview
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    Mar 21st 2017, 6:56 PM

    @Stephen Maher: Tallaght is not in the South Dublin county council area. It isnt included in the report

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    Mute scoop delivery
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:05 PM

    @danielplainview: tallaght is in south dublin county council , you plank. The head office of the entire SDCC is in Tallaght !!!

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    Mute Shane Cormican
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    Mar 21st 2017, 8:30 PM

    But your u can gave it if you want Daniel

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    Mute Shane Cormican
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    Mar 21st 2017, 8:31 PM

    I mean you can have tallaght if you want Daniel

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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Mar 21st 2017, 9:39 PM

    Nothing to do with the fact that they didn’t fix the ghost estates but “re-designated” them. The criteria for a ghost estate was originally an estate that had been left unfinished by a developer. One swipe of a pen latter and to earn that classification your estate had to have no connected sewerage and no road!

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    Mute eileen boles
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    Mar 21st 2017, 7:47 PM

    Pity the builders wouldn’t disappear with them.

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    Mute dotty
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    Mar 21st 2017, 8:37 PM

    The local councils are buying them all up cheap. Pity the would offer them cheap to the public

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    Mute An bhearna
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    Mar 22nd 2017, 9:40 AM

    Adamstown is still largely unfinished and is right in the middle of SDCC area.

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    Mute Tom Fennelly
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    Mar 25th 2017, 10:56 AM

    There are 4 Categories of Ghost Estates:
    Category 1: Developer present and active;

    Category 2: Developments where a receiver had been appointed;

    Category 3: Developer present but not active; and
    Category 4: Abandoned developments (no developer present) with serious public safety issues.

    In the case of South Dublin County Council, and in relation to Category 2, it would be reasonable to think that, since for the most part the receiver was Nama, that such estates would provide mixed housing, or, at the very least an adherence to the Part V Process. Instead, having been notified in writing South Dublin County Councils Executive Planning official allowed an application to be made for detached four bed houses with a wrong address so as to increase the sales prices while no agreement of the Part V Process was in place one year after building commenced. South Dublin County Council are the one local authority who made a large contribution to the homeless cisis with their hair brained “Tallaght City” project and their failure to collect €Millions in Development Contributions from the sprawl they allowed be creadted.

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