Ghost Estate, with a Samsung 18-55mm

[Farside]

Some of you may know of Ireland's Ghost Estates, where whole housing estates were fully or partially completed, and the builder went bankrupt in 2007/8/9. Some of the houses were occupied, but many weren't and it left a lot of people stranded in unfinished houses, or surrounded by empty and slowly deteriorating properties.
Turns out my small local town (just a big village, really) has its very own Ghost Estate.

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I find the last one bitterly ironic, in that the youngsters shown there will possibly never be able to afford a new house without screwing themselves to the bank counter for the rest of their lives, and there they are, not posing in front of a house that's lying empty, in an unconscious parody of so many happy-time photographs of house owners doing just that.

[mo]

Thanks for taking the time to photograph this,,I have never heard of it before "ghost estates"...that's scary but not for paranormal reasons. Will they just sit there and rot? no-one to come and buy the estate and finish them off?

[Lloydy]

Around here house building is once again in full swing, it seems like every green field and bit of unspoiled countryside is being relentlessly built on. I've started to photograph some of the open country before it's gone forever.

Great series of images, the last time we were in Eire we saw the start of this disaster. Nobody thought it would last this long.

[barryreid]

Great work, really interesting. The inclusion of the bored looking teens makes the series. I think there's a great project to be done on these estates, if you could visit a few more.

[skida]

What all the rest said. It is good to document the sadness and waste that we live with.