Galway has oversupply of 7,000 empty homes

Date Published: 11-Aug-2010

There is an estimated oversupply of almost 7,000 houses in County Galway – with a current value of around €1.4 billion – according to shocking new figures.

The true extent of Galway’s ghost estates and excess of one-off houses – caused by years of overdevelopment during the property boom – is only now being fully realised, and the figures suggest it could take almost five years to clear the oversupply.

Meanwhile, speculation continues that many of the empties will be used to ‘wipe out’ the county’s hosing waiting list – at the moment, there are around 2,100 families and individuals on the list.

The new report, from the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Awareness (NIRSA) aims to determine the role of decisions made by planning authorities in the Irish property bubble.

The study – entitled ‘A Haunted Landscape: Housing and Ghost Estates in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland’ – found that many local authorities allowed an oversupply of housing to be created,

including County Galway, with an estimated excess of 6,975 homes.

At the other end of the spectrum, Galway City Council came out tops in the research, being the only local authority in the country to record an undersupply.

The report estimates that in County Galway, it will take around 4.8 years to clear the surplus housing stock.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.