Ireland to demolish brand new ‘unwanted’ homes

Old_Git

Asheron wrote: »

They have been called the 'ghost estates' of the Irish Republic - about 300,000 homes built in the frenzy of the property boom that no-one wants to live in now.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8653238.stm

if every person on the council waiting list where given a new house there would still be loads off empty new houses .

leftieM

To add to the argument...
As I understand it, the houses to be bulldozed aren't 'perfectly good homes'. One of the many stupid moves the Irish goverment made wrt the construction industry was to allow them to self-regulate.
They took the building regs that the UK had and inserted the word 'should' for 'must'. So if a builder is told not that they must build to a certain standard, but that they should do so, what happens? Swathes of sub-standard housing. There were bribes given to various administrators to sign off on these substandard houses. Certificates were being sold on the black market. The whole system was rotten.
These substandard houses are not good enough for social housing - the council is not allowed to buy them legally as their houses must be of a certain build quality. They are not mortgageable any more - no bank wants a house that will need to be rebuilt in 20 years!
There is no option but to bulldoze them.

Lotus-eater

leftieM wrote: »

To add to the argument...
As I understand it, the houses to be bulldozed aren't 'perfectly good homes'. One of the many stupid moves the Irish goverment made wrt the construction industry was to allow them to self-regulate.
They took the building regs that the UK had and inserted the word 'should' for 'must'. So if a builder is told not that they must build to a certain standard, but that they should do so, what happens? Swathes of sub-standard housing. There were bribes given to various administrators to sign off on these substandard houses. Certificates were being sold on the black market. The whole system was rotten.
These substandard houses are not good enough for social housing - the council is not allowed to buy them legally as their houses must be of a certain build quality. They are not mortgageable any more - no bank wants a house that will need to be rebuilt in 20 years!
There is no option but to bulldoze them.

I hadn't heard that, but my god!

I'm seeing some Irish relatives in a few weeks, I look forward to getting an update from them about the situ.

PasturesNew

benb76 wrote: »

Why discount farmland?

In order to compare actual density of population. Population is dense, where people live... not where they don't/can't live.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

benb76 wrote: »

It seems that the Irish devopers have built homes for approximately 1.2 million people that don't actually exist, which is over 25% of the population! This makes a mockery of anyone trying to compare the UK housing market with the Irish one.

Empty homes as a percentage of total housing stock.

Ireland 17%
Spain 16%
USA 11%
Germany 8.2%
France 6.8%
UK 3.2%

It is no coincidence that the countries with the highest vacancy rates have had the biggest crashes.

And those like the UK, with the lowest vacancy rates, have had the smaller crashes and fastest recoveries.

zappahey

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Empty homes as a percentage of total housing stock.

Ireland 17%
Spain 16%
USA 11%
Germany 8.2%
France 6.8%
UK 3.2%

It is no coincidence that the countries with the highest vacancy rates have had the biggest crashes.

And those like the UK, with the lowest vacancy rates, have had the smaller crashes and fastest recoveries.

shane42

benb76 wrote: »

It seems that the Irish devopers have built homes for approximately 1.2 million people that don't actually exist, which is over 25% of the population! This makes a mockery of anyone trying to compare the UK housing market with the Irish one.

well they are ? :rotfl: