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THERE ARE MORE than 250 so-called ‘ghost estates’ leftover from the boom, but few if any will be of much use to the main housebuilders, according to one analyst.
A government report published this week found that there are 256 unfinished housing developments across the country, down from almost 3,000 nearly a decade ago.
Within the hundreds of unfinished developments, more than 670 dwellings are completed but vacant, over 3,000 are at various stages of completion and almost 5,740 haven’t been started yet. Some 4,600 dwellings are completed and occupied.
According to a draft version of the Department of Housing report, the majority of ghost estates are located in counties Cork, Roscommon, Donegal and Kerry.
The only locations where there are no ghost estates are Westmeath and south Dublin.
Poor locations
Housing department officials expect that “a good number” of ghost estates will move off the list this year as some sites have been put up for sale or have had new planning applications lodged on them.
However, asset management firm Investec said in a morning briefing note that it’s unlikely any of the main housebuilding firms will acquire the sites because most are in poor locations.
Investec economist Philip O’Sullivan described ghost estates as “one of the most visible manifestations of the excesses of the property bubble of the early noughties”.
“With the national housing stock standing at slightly over 2 million units, the total capacity … of the remaining unfinished developments equates to less than 0.5% of the housing stock,” he said, adding that the government effort to fix the problem is “welcome”.
However, O’Sullivan said it is unlikely that all the remaining plots will be built on “given the location of some of these estates”.
“With most of these estates located outside of the main urban centres we see few, if any, opportunities for the likes of the listed housebuilders and REITs (real estate investment trusts) to acquire units or development assets from this source,” he said.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
Living and working in Canada earning $90,000 plus bonuses. How. Is this relevant to Ireland.
@James Fox: At the least, we could have the Euro equivalent in brackets beside it. $90K is around €62K to prevent others having to look it up.
@Longlin: With all of these it’s worth looking at the monthly take home, which when added and converted is about €41k
Median wage of these weekly journals is approx 70k a year salary ! Can we have a few more part time corner shop workers on €9 an hour and maybe a Carer / social welfare recipient paying extortionate rent for parity !
@Ríain HenC: they have to be the ones that get in touch. You’re not paid to do this feature I presume
@Ryan O’Rourke: exactly. If nobody with a low salary gets in touch with them first we won’t be able to read about it here. Against popular opinion these stories are not made up but real people.
This is the best one so far! Canada! Dollars, 31 on $91k, Dungeons and Dragons…brillant, I have my fingers crossed for the Afghan Shepherd next week.
@John Murphy: in fairness D&D is a bit of craic
Once I saw the headline I knew the negativity would just flow through the comments ,with the 1st 3 comments being as expected can’t wait to see the rest
$2,200 for a 2+2 in Toronto is VERY good value.
@B Collins: yup, a relative of mine is paying $1900 for a 2 bed basement in Ajax. I paid $1350 a month for a 2 bed basement in North Toronto in 2017. Things are worse there than here!
@Jen Mc: tell that to all the moaners on here, lol. Only they can change their own situation rather than expecting the government to pull them up
I want to be a Performance marketing manager
@Genera L Consensus: your performance just isn’t good enough I’m afraid
@Genera L Consensus: nobody ‘wants’ to be a performance marketer…
Not saving nowhere near enough for the money they’re making. If the plan is to every buy a place anywhere they need to up their game. I was saving more than that while renting on less than half their salary.
@Daniel Murray: where in Killinaskully?
@Daniel Murray: The numbers don’t add up. Their outgoings appear small yet they only have 6-900 dollars a month. There’s at least another 1.5k being spent somewhere
It’s a piss take.
@John Killeen: Not necessarily, you could have individuals that are high on life taking part. It might only really represent one percent of people but the other ninety nine couldn’t be bothered taking part in this.
Spend some money on a visit to a gastroenterologist. A specialist will identify exactly the triggers.
Where’s the relevance for us folks living in ireland ?
Performance Marketing… ugh! making sure we’re all firmly engaged with cr@p we don’t need.
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