Community response to ghost estate problem

Is this the solution to the ghost estate problem?

Last August, Glengarriff businessman Finn McSweeney teamed up with local estate agent John O’Neill and set about converting a half-empty holiday home development into a fully occupied community hub. Mountain View is an estate of 23 holiday homes built at the height of the boom by a Limerick partnership that had hoped to sell them for around €300,000 each.

Cut to two years later. The partnership is in receivership and most of the houses are empty. The receiver is looking for buyers but no matter how well-finished the houses, or how low the price, no one wants to live in a ghost estate. Mr McSweeney realises the only way out is for a consortium to get together and purchase a large group of houses. And this is what happens.