'Ghost Estates'; what to do with them?

W

Welfarite

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So what suggestions are out there about what to do with these unoccupied houses? The more imaginative the better!
 
Build a swimming pool in each ghost estate and rent out the properties as holiday homes.

Let the councillers stay in them on junkets and cook their own brekkie instead of tax payers footing hotel bills. They can bring their own booze too to cut down on expenses.

Flog them to some religious cult who needs to keep all their disciples in one place to keep and eye on them.

Put bars on the windows and doors with locks on the outside only and throw the entire government into them like luxury jail cells.
 
Put all of them to auction with no reserve. People with their own money in the property are more likely to maintain the properties.
 
Hand them over to the Israeli and American armies for training in anti-terrorism techniques.
 
dmos87 said:
+1 for me also, excellent idea.
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Same here. Why knock them down if someone might buy them for €50k or €20k or whatever.

If you could buy a 2nd home down the country in Longford or somewhere for €150pm over 30 years you might get people tempted.
 
Hold on to them for as long as possible in the vain hope that one day they will be worth what we paid for them. Do not sell them for fear of revealing the true market price, try and prop up that market! Meanwhile load more debt and interest repayments on the tax payer safe in the knowledge you won't actually be around to clean up the mess when it hits the fan.
 
Chris said:
Put all of them to auction with no reserve. People with their own money in the property are more likely to maintain the properties.
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I'm really not sure that this would work at all, given the mess that these estates are in. Many of the estates are half finished, with the builder gone bust. There may be no management company, or if there is, it is controlled by a receiver.

Any individual buying into the estate would be buying into a legal quagmire for the next decade or so.

The only way I could see this working would be if the estate was sold as a whole, and prospective buyers could price in the costs of works outstanding. Though I'm still not sure if these estates would have any positive value on this basis.
 
Perhaps I spoke too soon. I guess that it is positive to see these estates moving forward, but this obviously going to create further inequality. Those who have the resources are able to pick up bargains when the market is very low, while those who could actually afford the unit cost of a single apartment/house can't afford the risk that comes with it in this case.
 
Complainer said:
I'm really not sure that this would work at all, given the mess that these estates are in. Many of the estates are half finished, with the builder gone bust. There may be no management company, or if there is, it is controlled by a receiver.

Any individual buying into the estate would be buying into a legal quagmire for the next decade or so.

The only way I could see this working would be if the estate was sold as a whole, and prospective buyers could price in the costs of works outstanding. Though I'm still not sure if these estates would have any positive value on this basis.
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Yes indeed, It wouldn't be simple, but there is a market clearing price for everything. You paint the ideal situation with someone coming in and buying up an entire unfinished estate, completing it to a sellable standard and then selling it on. At the end of the day, anything is better than letting them sit idle or knocking them down.

Complainer said:
Perhaps I spoke too soon. I guess that it is positive to see these estates moving forward, but this obviously going to create further inequality. Those who have the resources are able to pick up bargains when the market is very low, while those who could actually afford the unit cost of a single apartment/house can't afford the risk that comes with it in this case.
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But someone with the resources and willingness to take on the risk of buying up these houses would be doing every other potential buyer a favour. If they take on the risk, and are able to finish off the houses and then sell them on to someone who was not in the position to take on the risk, then that latter person will be better off than if nobody had taken on the risk.
 
If they were to go for fractions of the cost of a similar house in the same locality, the local house prices would hit the skids.

It is probably in the best interests of the banks and the government to have them decay to ruin than to be used to make a family home.

Depressing but true.
 
Investigate the local authorities that gave planning permission for these.

Find out who was responsible and sack them.
 
cork said:
Investigate the local authorities that gave planning permission for these.

Find out who was responsible and sack them.
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You'll have to look a bit deeper. Most of them went to An Bord Pleanala - so maybe you should be sacking the Govt appointed members of ABP?
 
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