Ghost Estates

There is an emergence of a very new problem across the Irish countryside in the wake of the global recession and the current financial climate in the country. The ‘Ghost Estate’ is the new front runner problem that is now facing local authorities nationwide. With the banks largely responsible for some 230 unfinished housing estates abandoned by bankrupt developers, the problem is largely unaddressed. The result is a physical scar on the landscape with the larger environmental and safety concerns that arise with dangerous unfinished housing projects.

In the era of building for sustainable communities, it begs the question if Ireland ever seriously satisfied the criteria, when we now find that there was never a need for the excessive housing stock that has now resulted in yet another problem we need to find the answer for, which is made all the more difficult when the issue of cost is taken into the equation.