Ireland's ghost estate nightmare

RESIDENTS in just 421 unfinished housing developments have been granted a waiver from the property tax, even though there are 466 housing estates around Munster alone where the occupants must live with the dreaded title “ghost estate” — and that is according to the Government’s own figures.

The bulk of those 466 estates — with 31,550 units — would have been among the 1,322 developments which were exempt from the household charge just a couple of years ago.

However, as well as claiming that a number of estates are now “substantially complete” or that the development had never commenced, the Government also upped the numbers liable for the property tax by changing — tightening — the criteria for eligibility for the waiver.