FUTURE PLANNING:BULLDOZING UNFINISHED housing estates would be a "complete waste of money", Construction Industry Federation (CIF) director general Tom Parlon has said.
The Department of the Environment will next month publish results of a national survey of unfinished or “ghost estates”. The survey, which will quantify the numbers of unfinished and vacant houses in each county, will be used to direct solutions to the problem.
But Mr Parlon said: “If we get the bulldozers in we’re assuming that nobody is going to need housing again. We need to protect the maximum amount of investment we can.”
Where possible, unfinished or vacant estates should be upgraded to the highest standards of energy efficiency and be equipped with services such as internet WiFi to make them as attractive as possible to buyers, Mr Parlon added.
Where there were parts of an estate that had sewerage and other infrastructure, but no substantial building work had taken place, these should be “put into storage”, he said, by covering them with polythene and topsoil and planting.
In some cases, where unfinished structures had been exposed to the elements these may have to be demolished he said, but every effort should be made to ensure that buildings don’t reach this stage. The solution to many of these problems lay with local authorities, Mr Parlon claimed.
“In terms of finishing these estates local authorities have bonds, but there are also development contributions, large amounts of which remain unspent by local authorities.”
In relation to the use of these estates, the social housing waiting lists in each county should be “married up” with the lists of vacant properties. Local authorities had been given the option by the Minister for the Environment to engage in long-term leasing but had thus far “failed to embrace that option” he said.
In contrast, An Taisce president Prof John Sweeney said unsustainable housing estates should be demolished, even if they had been completed.
“If an estate is car dependent, if it is clear it is not going to be occupied, it should be demolished and restored to a more appropriate land use.”
The Government should consider a scheme to buy out residents who are living in estates which are unfinished or have a high level of vacancy, he said.
“There’s no easy way out here. We can’t abandon people living in these estates to their fate. We have to bite the bullet.”
Results from the pilot phase of the ghost estate study, conducted in Laois, found there were 63 unfinished estates in the county, almost a quarter of completed homes were vacant, and about one-fifth did not have adequate water, sewerage and road infrastructure.
Sinn Féin Laois county councillor Brian Stanley said it was not enough to survey the numbers and condition of estates.
“If we’re to find a solution to this problem we need to know who owns these places now; is it a developer, is it financial institutions, is it Nama? We need to know if there is a plan to finish the estate and if the bond lodged with the council could be enough to finish it. There should be a data base for all this information that anyone can access.”
One problem that had to be addressed was a decision by banks not to give mortgages for apartments outside the main cities, Mr Stanley said.
“That is a totally unreasonable decision and one where the Government must step in.”
Vacant parts of estates, particularly unfinished apartment buildings could be converted to nursing homes and estates gave huge scope for reducing the housing waiting lists.
“Having a mix of uses peppered through estates would have a huge social benefit,” he said.
Fine Gael housing spokesman Terence Flanagan said the Rent-to-Buy Scheme recently offered in Dublin city was already proving popular and could substantially reduce the numbers of vacant houses nationally.
“People who are not ready to buy now could rent for the next few years with that money going towards the purchase price of the property if they decide to buy.”
In relation to unfinished housing, a scheme could be introduced to give construction workers dole top-ups to work on finishing units, he said.“Yes these things will cost money, but its preferable to the cost which can and will arise from the health and safety issues on these estates."
