More than a decade after it was nearly completed, a ghost estate in Carlow still lies empty.
The Glendale Estate outside Tullow, Carlow is one of Ireland's 75 ghost estates, even though it has 63 completed houses.
Ghost estates like Glendale are not only a physical scar on the landscape but a reminder of the continuing waste that is allowed even during a housing crisis.
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In 2012, the 14-acre development that is Glendale Estate was sold for €640,000, or just over €10,000 per house when you don't include the planning permission for the further 58 sites, included in the sale.
Then the houses were not completed, all that was needed was a kitchen fitted and groundwork done.
The houses are complete now but they remain empty.
We spoke to locals, who say it was originally a "fantastic idea" and people were "loving the idea of living there".
One person told The Irish Mirror: "There's too many people homeless to have that sitting there with nobody in it and there are so many other places around the country and towns remain empty."
The latest government figures show that 11,754 people were living in emergency accommodation in January.
January was the seventh month in a row that the Irish homelessness record was broken.
Another pointed out to The Irish Mirror that the longer the houses sit there, the more they rot.
It's clear locals are frustrated with the empty buildings just outside of Tullow.
"It just seems like a lack of joined-up thinking on behalf of stakeholders or invested bodies to connect people in need with property that's lying empty," a third person said.
There are still 75 ghost estates in Ireland, 15 years after the 2008 crash, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.
That's a decrease of 49 'unfinished developments' from 2020 and a 98 per cent reduction from 2010, when there were 2,846 such estates.
In 2010, there were more than 100,000 partially-built homes dotted around the country.
Over 12 years later, more than 500 people are still living in partially-completed estates.
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