Level ghost estates and empty apartment blocks

[Trans-Siberian]

Just an idea, but is there any merit in levelling unsold housing estates and apartment blocks so there are less properties on the market.
( we could exclude a certain amount for social housing needs )

We can recycle everything in them even the concrete. In certain areas the land will become productive agricultural land again. In city areas the land can be used for community purposes.

The builders and developers involved could be moderately compensated by the state. Let’s face it; it would benefit all other property owners in the long run. Compensation could be in line with construction costs and the developers should be lucky to even get that.We are writing off there loans now anyway.

With emigration on the rise we will be otherwise looking at these empty properties for years to come.
Should we be radical and waist no more time?

[Oldira1]

Why not just force the developers to sell at an auction? No reserve. I bet EVERYTHING would sell.

[DaBrow]

Just an idea, but is there any merit in levelling unsold housing estates and apartment blocks so there are less properties on the market.
( we could exclude a certain amount for social housing needs )

We can recycle everything in them even the concrete. In certain areas the land will become productive agricultural land again. In city areas the land can be used for community purposes.

The builders and developers involved could be moderately compensated by the state. Let’s face it; it would benefit all other property owners in the long run. Compensation could be in line with construction costs and the developers should be lucky to even get that.We are writing off there loans now anyway.

With emigration on the rise we will be otherwise looking at these empty properties for years to come.
Should we be radical and waist no more time?

Knock down some of them!

Not all though, I'm hoping to squat one out so I cna have my own house in Dublin!

[Eorna]

I don't think that we should start knocking them just yet. There will definately some that will be demolished in the next 5 years.

[joel]

Just an idea, but is there any merit in levelling unsold housing estates and apartment blocks so there are less properties on the market.
( we could exclude a certain amount for social housing needs )

We can recycle everything in them even the concrete. In certain areas the land will become productive agricultural land again. In city areas the land can be used for community purposes.

The builders and developers involved could be moderately compensated by the state. Let’s face it; it would benefit all other property owners in the long run. Compensation could be in line with construction costs and the developers should be lucky to even get that.We are writing off there loans now anyway.

With emigration on the rise we will be otherwise looking at these empty properties for years to come.
Should we be radical and waist no more time?

Brilliant! Next, Roads to Nowhere.

[goosebump]

We are writing off there loans now anyway.

We're not if we can avoid it. If we can't realise the value of loan books, taxpayers have to fork out the difference to depositors.

This idea that the State is going to acquire a load of property that it can commit to social pursuits is a left-wing fantasy that betrays total ignorance of our current predicament re. the banks.

[Trans-Siberian]

Why not just force the developers to sell at an auction? No reserve. I bet EVERYTHING would sell.

That would only compound the problem. I mean we do need prices to bottom out to an apropriate level but if they go too low current mortgage holders ( anyone bought after 2002 ) will just give up and it will be 'keys back in through the letterbox 'on a massive scale.

[goosebump]

Not such a fantasy.

We now own the banks (more or less). The banks own the properties (more or less, the developers will default).

We own the properties.

And we owe the depositors, and other banks, billions of euro that doesn't actually exist in hard currency.

Are you getting it yet?

[Eorna]

I don't think that this has anything to do with right or left fantasies. There are too many houses in the country, many of them will never be lived in, will begin to fall apart from vandalisim and neglect and will become magnets for anti-social behaviour. All so that the PD's could reward the bankers, and FF the property developers.

[b.a. baracus]

That would only compound the problem. I mean we do need prices to bottom out to an apropriate level but if they go too low current mortgage holders ( anyone bought after 2002 ) will just give up and it will be 'keys back in through the letterbox 'on a massive scale.

Come back when you know something about the property bubble. While mortgages in the USA are non-recourse, that is not the case in Ireland.
Essentially what you are proposing is Government support for an artificially high property market. Thats what got us in to the mess in the first place.