25 unfinished projects in ghost estate ‘capital’
An analysis of figures compiled by the Department of the Environment reveals Carlow, Cavan, Dundalk, Enniscorthy, and Letterkenny as other towns with a large number of estates in various stages of construction, some with little likelihood of ever being finished.
Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan revealed last week that 1,100 out of 1,770 unfinished developments around the country remain a major problem because of lack of facilities such as lighting, footpaths, roads, water, and sewerage.
About 1,200 developments have been removed from the list of unfinished estates over the past three years.
Construction work is ongoing on just over 220 of the 1,770 unfinished estates identified during a major survey conducted by local authorities in the summer.
Gorey, which has a population of just over 9,600, is the town with the biggest number of unfinished developments in Ireland.
Since 2010, 56 unfinished developments were recorded in the town. However, this has reduced to the current level of 25 — five of which have no residents at all.
Just over 900 houses were planned on these 25 estates but only 344 are occupied, with another 10 finished but vacant and 26 near completion. However, 84 are only partly built, while no work has commenced on 447 units.
Across the Republic, a total of 129,231 housing units are planned on 1,770 unfinished developments in the survey carried out on behalf of the Department of the Environment.
Just over 54,500 homes (or 42% of the total) are occupied, while more than 9,607 homes are finished but lying empty.
Another 7,300 are near completion and about 8,900 homes are partly built and in various stages of construction.
However, construction on almost 49,000 planned homes has not begun or planning permission has expired. It represents 38% of all housing units on unfinished developments, with the vast majority likely never to be built.
All but one of the 10 largest unfinished developments are in Dublin — the other being Fruithill Manor in Graiguecullen, which is just outside Carlow town but is in Co Laois. Fruithill Manor is a true ghost estate, with no residents and just 39 out of 806 planned homes actually built.
Clancy Hall in the Dublin suburb of Islandbridge has the highest number of vacant homes in any estate, with 223 units empty out of a total of 411. No construction work has taken place on a further 364 homes planned for the site.
All 187 apartments in the infamous Priory Hall estate in Donaghmede, whose residents were forced to leave for safety reasons, also remain empty. The estate, built by bankrupt rogue developer Tom McFeely, is the country’s largest true “ghost estate”, with no residents at all.
A total of 327 developments lie completely empty. Many are small developments of just a few units with little or no construction work to date, but others are quite large.
They include Avena Mill Apartments in Ballisodare, Co Sligo and Ard Dealgan, Dundalk, Co Louth — each having 73 finished housing units without a single resident.
However, the true scale of the property boom and bust is best seen in the small Co Cavan village of Mullagh, 10km from Virginia and with a population of just 1,962. It is the location for 12 unfinished estates with plans for 410 homes.
Little or no work has been done on more than half of the units, with just 159 homes currently occupied and 37 lying vacant.
Ms O’Sullivan has promised that action plans for all 1,100 problem developments are to be finalised by the first half of 2013.
Gorey: 25
Carlow: 23
Cavan: 20
Dundalk: 17
Enniscorthy: 17
Letterkenny: 16
Portlaoise: 13
Listowel: 13
Killarney: 12
Mullagh, Co Cavan: 12
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