Number of ghost estates decreases

THERE has been a decrease in the number of ghost estates around the country over the past 12 months, according to a new survey on housing developments.

However, there has been a marked slowdown in construction activity on unfinished building sites, indicating the issue of ghost estates will remain problematic for a number of years.

The survey reveals there are 2,066 housing developments across the country where construction had begun but which remain unfinished.

One-fifth of all houses and apartments recorded as vacant last year have now been sold or rented.

However, there are still 18,638 housing units that are complete and vacant across Ireland compared to 23,250 in 2010. Another 8,794 dwellings are recorded as near-complete.

A total of 2,876 housing developments across 34 local authority areas were documented as part of the survey. Combined, they have planning permission to construct more than 181,000 housing units.

The survey also revealed there are still 1,822 ghost estates — around 63% of all developments — which are unfinished and on which no further development is taking place.

Construction work is ongoing on a further 244 unfinished housing developments, while 701 estates which were classified as unfinished in a similar survey last year are now complete.

No work has ever started on 109 developments, which have planning permission for 59,380 units.

Housing Minister Willie Penrose said there had been “careful, steady progress on the road to resolution of this most difficult problem”.

He claimed advances were being made in bringing vacant housing into beneficial use and bringing down the level of vacant, new housing.

Mr Penrose said 7,343 homes which were vacant in 2010 were now occupied.

A total of 85,538 dwellings were recorded as complete and occupied — an increase of 9.4% on 2010 figures.

A total of 17,827 dwellings are at various stages of construction with almost half nearly complete.

The largest number of inactive ghost estates are in Cork county (175) followed by Wexford (115), Cavan (111) and Kerry (97).

Cork county also has the highest number of vacant units (2,363), followed by Dublin city (1,553) Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (1,080) and Fingal (1,051).

However, Carlow, Leitrim, Longford, Cavan and Sligo have the highest proportion of vacant houses on ghost estates on a per capita basis.

“There is no magic wand that can solve this in one fell swoop,” Mr Penrose said.

He also published a new guide for residents of unfinished estates as well as a code of practice for stakeholders involved in progressing the completion of such developments.

Mr Penrose said €2.1 million of a €5m budget had already been allocated to local authorities for emergency repairs to remedy public safety issues. There are 194 unfinished estates considered in a dangerous state.

Mr Penrose said permission had been granted for the demolition of three developments in Tipperary, Wexford and Westmeath over the past year.