Bulldoze ghost estates – Housing Minister

Up to 200 ghost estates face being bulldozed under new plans being drawn up by the Housing Minister.

The country has been left with 1,100 unfinished developments since the property bubble burst in 2008 – many of which are in a dangerous state.

Junior Minister Jan O’Sullivan has admitted that up to 200 may be bulldozed as part of the plans to deal with ghost estates.

In an interview with the Herald, the Labour politician said that the vast majority of the country’s ghost estates “can be finished and have to be finished”.

At the height of the building boom in 2006, a total of 93,000 new houses and apartments were built, over four times the number completed in 1993.

This year, for the month of January alone, some 342 new houses were completed.

“What I’m trying to achieve in chairing the committee on unfinished estates, is that we get a resolution to get them finished,” she said.

“But in ghost estates where nobody is living but there are still half-built houses, probably the best resolution is to demolish them.”

According to the Minister, the bulldozing of estates would be done “in conjunction with the owners and with the local authority”.

“But ultimately I can’t force [their demolition], because they are private properties so I can’t force anybody to do anything,” she said.

“But we want to do it by consensus and we want to get a definite proposal and plan for each and every one of those unfinished estates some time later this year.”

As previously revealed by the Herald, plans by the State to fast-track the provision of houses from NAMA to local authorities are moving at a much slower pace than expected.