Ghost Estates and Basket Case Economics
After this page was indexed by google it received a disproportionate amount of page hits for a little site of this size and some interesting search phrases turned up. Web server logs are useful because they are good for spotting trends but the most interesting thing about them is that they tell you what people are thinking. Sometimes if you carefully read between the lines they also reveal little nuggets of insight into people's dreams, hopes and aspirations. Or their worst fears
One phrase in particular stood out: "how much for a house in a ghost estate in Ireland?". Even though the country is bankrupt and totally buggered the Irish still have this obsession with property. Would someone really want to live in a ghost estate just to be able so tell people that they own their own home?
I don't think they will ever be cured of this mental disorder barring that one of the bright young things who will be running the 'smart economy' formulates a miraculous gene transplant which can be safely and comfortably administered by the village doc. This gene is just as destructive as it's close cousin which makes Scotsmen aggressive and fit biometric security locks and anti-crowbar grease to their wallets
I wondered who these searchers were and what they were looking for - hopefully honest young working couples simply trying to get a roof over their heads and in that case very good luck to them because they have been disenfranchised for long enough. I don't want to see another generation being lost to emigration while the fly boys remain to lord it over us ageing and despairing peasants but you would never blame any young and ambitious person for saying feck you Ireland and and taking flight to some far away place. Ireland's old elites cast aside the disenfranchised majority in the past and they are doing it again
The party is long over and the land is strewn with empties. Empty houses, empty bank accounts and empty hearts that have lost all hope. Some us who suffered under Thatcher never got a fair crack at life when starting out and it took some of us years to gain enough confidence to climb out of the poverty of spirit which her brutal and disturbing reign imposed on a helpless nation. It is happening all over again and now we have Son of Thatcher and his gang of Eton fags calling the shots. In Ireland we have an inbred and privileged few running the country from biscuit tins and who will protect their rich puppet masters at any cost no matter how superficially vulgar their arguments sound to the public. They have no shame, no patriotism and no heart
What follows are some observations on why this dear green place has again become a basket case
The road from Sligo winding northwards to Ballyshannon is one of the most scenic drives in Ireland. You pass Drumcliffe Church where the writer W.B.Yeats lies at rest under the shadow of Benbulben and further on up the road you pass the great bulk of Mullaghmore hill jutting out into the Atlantic. It is a photographer's paradise and a magnet for back packing Europeans who prefer the quieter places off the beaten track. On the approach to Bundoran you meet the Drowse river where salmon and trout fly-fishermen spend lazy summer afternoons but this is where the magic of the landscape changes dramatically
What would be an idyllic spot where men can fish and forget about their troubles has been polluted with the eyesore of another abandoned house building project which contributes to the 300,000+ houses lying empty in modern Ireland. This is a sight - pun intended - which is now common all over Ireland. Ugly empty shells built solely for profit which blot the landscape with houses that are not lived in, uncared for and unloved
When I first visited County Donegal back in 2000 the first thing that struck me was the landscape. Donegal is naturally beautiful but even back then it struck me as odd the sheer amount of square box like bungalows which peppered the landscape. Donegal was always an unemployment blackspot and it was because of this that I began taking an interest in the Irish housing scene. Thousands of vacant houses in an area where there is hardly any people and where wages are poor is a sign that all is not well but finding anyone who agreed with this observation was almost impossible. Sometimes it felt like being the only human being left in a land of property zombies whose most frequent utterance was 'buy now, buy now' as they looked at you through naive and childlike eyes
Slap bang in the middle of this ghost estate a lone horse stands tied to scaffolding in the afternoon sun. Fortunately for this mule it is only April and the sun has yet to bake the land with the heat of summer but unfortunately this is now a common sight in Ireland. There are 30,000 cases of animal cruelty each year in Ireland while there is about 800 in Scotland. Maybe the owner of this poor animal should be chained to the scaffold for a day to see how they like it
Bundoran has many estates which are like ghost towns and when driving through the town in the winter there is an eerie feel to the place which is unnatural. It is spooky. I have heard others remark about Bundoran in winter and they tend to agree. The picture below shows an estate which lies almost completely empty except maybe for one or two families who bought and set up home here. The front walls are already decaying and the houses are bland and empty. Simply put, it is all light and no love but hey, who cares?, welcome to a great new life on the crest of a wave. Now you can even get a two for one deal, Roll up, roll up! The snag is that banks don't have any cash to lend and the builders are all bankrupt. The smart ones aint but all the amateurs are their folly has helped send us all right up quare street
Despite these few shortcomings in the landscape around Bundoran the town is a lively spot in summer and has a healthy surfing scene which contributes to it's holiday atmosphere. As a location it is perfect for anyone wishing to take in Counties Sligo and Donegal on a driving holiday and locally there are some excellent coastal strolls and a fine sandy beach up at Finner. It is useless for shorefishing because it is polluted with assholes on surfboards but hey live and let live. Anyway real fishermen know where the best quiet spots are and where you are more likely to bag a lone passing sea trout provided it has not been scared shitless and driven to County Cork by the surf dudes
The warped nature of the Irish housing market
- Local authorities gave the green light to builders to create a massive over supply of private housing
- Gombeen builders are egged on by greedy bankers in pursuit of easy profits
- Both make fortunes by inflating the market to bursting point
- The people buy this folly hook, line and sinker with no sense of personal responsibility
- Bang! the market pops and property has lost 40% - 50% of it's 'value' with more to follow
- Banks and builders are up the creek and over 300,000 people are in negative equity
- About 1 in 5 properties lie empty while there are 60,000 households on local authority waiting lists
- There are 5000 homeless people in Ireland. This is shameful and a national disgrace
- Irish people are being asked to pay €22bn to save one greedy bank, AIB
- House prices will need to rise to recoup the €22bn
- House prices will not be rising again in my lifetime - Catch 22. Thank I fuck rent
- Irish politicians will continue protecting stupid elites at the expense of the masses
- There are 450,000 jobless, 100,000 have fled and another 200,000 will follow
Why everything is arse to elbow
The images above can leave us in no doubt that the human race in going through a seriously delinquent phase in it's evolution. Selfishness is at the heart of most people's thinking and is what drives their motivations. When you lump selfishness together with mass stupidity then you have a recipe for disaster. People have lost the capacity for collective thinking and this division is why any of the crap we hear from the mouths of politicians and their partners in stupidity programming, the media, is simply not to be trusted. They are all feckin douchebags
The proof of this douchebaggery is all around us and all you need to do is wake up catch a look. Among the most top read stories on the Irish Independent website in one weekend we find:
- Buyers snap up homes at under half boom prices
- Glamour Women of the Year awards gallery
- Playground 'shag bands' spark fears over early sexualisation
- Luxury boys' toys for auction at 'once in a lifetime' sale
- Manager backs porn-film hurler
This is what I mean about modern living being so bland and empty. It is fuckin soulless. Consumerism has a lot to answer for because it has made people think that they can just bend over and pick up a little bit of what they fancy in this life. It has dumbed everyone down and turned them into stupid as shite, apolitical, greedy, consumerist simpletons. And that is what the master game plan has been all along. We are bums on seats who can be targeted by bs everytime we go online, watch tv or, god forbid, open a newspaper. Look at the magazine racks right next to the door next time you enter a newsagent and it will tell you a lot about where people's priorities lie. Too many heads are stuck up too many arses and we are constantly bombarded with nonsense from media whores, dragons and silly celebs who profess to love food. I suspect that poor pensioners and young mothers with mouths to feed on low incomes also love food!
Sleazy estate agents don cheap suits and Arfur Daley smiles; A knock on the door every four years from fly boys on the council looking to get re-elected but whose true character is revealed by the wet, fishy, clammy handshakes; village gossip mongers who can tell you who sold what and for how much always get an audience because that is the way the damn country ticks. This property porn is like an inbred disease that man has yet to find a cure for. It is like a sickness and if you really think about it logically then there is no other word to describe it. A home is a place to live. Pure and fucking simple.
Final Thoughts
The property market is a mirage and is based on profit over social needs. To see this you only need visit County Kildare and witness all the lonely ghost estates consisting of little box houses with very little in the way of community facilities. It could be argued that you can tell how much corruption is going on in a town just by looking at these estates and where they are situated. There has been plenty jiggery pokery going on among the wet fishy handshake brigade in oiling this corruption but ah sure they were not doing anything illegal. Phew. It is my sincere wish that I see a better Ireland emerge in own lifetime, one that reflects a better sense of community and the good in people, but until we get back to raising sons made of the same stuff as men like Connolly and Pearse then I am afraid we are all heading for shit street. Roll up, roll up for the Celtic Tiger
References
Martina Devlin - Irish Independent - Wake up and save this rotting republic of greed
1000s of user submitted photos of Irelands housing shame - ghostestates.com
Gene Kerrigan - Irish Independent - Elite won't save us - just themselves
Daniel McConnell - Irish Independent - 350,000 Irish homeowners in negative equity
David McWilliams - Ghettoisation of the nation
David McWilliams - No ghost of a chance as zombie bank stalks land
Clare Taylor - Irish Independent - What do we do with all the ghost estates?
