Number of ghost estates falls 30% to 1,258

The country’s landscape remains blotted with 1,258 “ghost estates”, most of which have seen no new construction activity in recent years.

The latest annual survey of unfinished housing developments shows the existence of ghost estates remains a problem in each of the country’s 34 local authority areas.

However, the number of unfinished estates has fallen by 30% since the previous survey as problems with another 553 housing estates have been resolved over the past 12 months and they are now classified as “substantially complete”.