.....and how to fill them
These London and Chinese examples of ghost area are caused by people with wealth buying additional homes, sometimes three, four or more. There is another type of ghost area in the world caused by an opposite, but equally powerful force in housing markets – loss of wealth. An example of this can be found in Ireland, where “ghost estates”, completed or half-completed housing developments from the noughties housing boom, ring the capital, Dublin. These lie empty, because an insufficient number of people in Ireland can afford to buy one home, let alone two, three or more. There are examples of this in California, home of the original “ghost towns” that were once the boom-towns of nineteenth century westward expansion, and in Spain where one million homes lie empty, mainly because foreigners can't or won't buy property in a debt-laden, economic disaster zone.
Isn't it odd how boom and bust housing markets can share a common characteristic – empty homes? And isn't it interesting how we label all these empty homes, estates, areas, districts and towns with the word “ghost”? Irrespective of how and where these empty homes appear, a common desire among those concerned with homelessness, community-building and economics is to see them filled with people.
A rebalancing of the global economy, wealth and perspectives would seem to be the way to fill empty homes. There would be fewer “virgin” flats in China if owners let them out, because they needed income. There would be fewer absentee home-owners in London if they were taxed more heavily. There would be more occupied homes in Ireland and USA if people could afford to buy or rent them. There would be more occupied holiday homes in Spain if austerity wasn't eating into European budgets.
Of course, the march of time means a rebalancing of global trends would not be enough in some cases – the ghost towns of nineteenth century America became empty, because they became obsolete. Time will tell how many early twenty-first century ghost areas are obsolete. Knightsbridge is likely to survive for a long while yet, because it is at the heart of a global financial capital. The future looks less promising for some of those empty, Spanish housing estates however.
The
world is being taken over by ghosts. The other day a London estate
agent spoke about “ghost areas” in Knightsbridge which were empty
much of the time, because most property owners were foreigners who
only spend a few weeks of the year in the British capital. China has
“ghost districts”, entire neighbourhoods of brand new empty
apartment blocks bought up by investors who refuse to let them out,
because a lived-in home has less value than a “virgin” property.
These London and Chinese examples of ghost area are caused by people with wealth buying additional homes, sometimes three, four or more. There is another type of ghost area in the world caused by an opposite, but equally powerful force in housing markets – loss of wealth. An example of this can be found in Ireland, where “ghost estates”, completed or half-completed housing developments from the noughties housing boom, ring the capital, Dublin. These lie empty, because an insufficient number of people in Ireland can afford to buy one home, let alone two, three or more. There are examples of this in California, home of the original “ghost towns” that were once the boom-towns of nineteenth century westward expansion, and in Spain where one million homes lie empty, mainly because foreigners can't or won't buy property in a debt-laden, economic disaster zone.
Isn't it odd how boom and bust housing markets can share a common characteristic – empty homes? And isn't it interesting how we label all these empty homes, estates, areas, districts and towns with the word “ghost”? Irrespective of how and where these empty homes appear, a common desire among those concerned with homelessness, community-building and economics is to see them filled with people.
A rebalancing of the global economy, wealth and perspectives would seem to be the way to fill empty homes. There would be fewer “virgin” flats in China if owners let them out, because they needed income. There would be fewer absentee home-owners in London if they were taxed more heavily. There would be more occupied homes in Ireland and USA if people could afford to buy or rent them. There would be more occupied holiday homes in Spain if austerity wasn't eating into European budgets.
Of course, the march of time means a rebalancing of global trends would not be enough in some cases – the ghost towns of nineteenth century America became empty, because they became obsolete. Time will tell how many early twenty-first century ghost areas are obsolete. Knightsbridge is likely to survive for a long while yet, because it is at the heart of a global financial capital. The future looks less promising for some of those empty, Spanish housing estates however.
No comments:
Post a Comment