Quaint seaside development shrouded in mystery

GHOSTS WITH A CHANCE:Despite its completion before the market collapse, this small development failed to attract any buyers

SO FAR IN this series, the high-end ghost estates we’ve featured have had one thing in common – they were launched in a blaze of publicity. Glowing reviews in the media, and even a turn on RTÉ’s Showhouse in one case, had prospective buyers flooding through the doors on viewing weekends. In the end, the implosion of the property market put paid to any (immediate) hopes of selling, but it wasn’t for lack of trying on the developer’s part.

The Reendesert ghost estate in the scenic coastal village of Ballylickey in West Cork, however, is different.

Despite its location in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, there was no great fanfare when this small, but perfectly formed development went on the market. In fact, there is no evidence it was officially launched and none of the houses were sold, which is baffling given that it was completed well before the market collapsed.

It’s odd too that the developers haven’t made the properties available as self-catering holiday accommodation, given Ballylickey’s status as a tourist hub. Bantry, Glengarriff and Gougane Barra are all just a stone’s throw away, and the village itself has many attractions, not least of which are the gourmet delights of Manning’s Emporium. Ballylickey’s tourism trade already supports several hotels and guesthouses, a large camping site and self-catering holiday homes that yield decent rents during the summer season. The Reendesert estate is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this trade, and yet it lies empty.

But the mystery doesn’t stop there. No one in the area seems to know who developed the estate, but everyone we spoke with in this tight-knit community recounted a story, almost word-for-word, about activities relating to the development (though we should stress that this story is without foundation). There are mutterings too of spring tides and flooding, and question marks over planning permission. A local estate agent even warned us off, and suggested we write about some other ghost estate. Eventually, he conceded that abandoned developments are bound to send the local rumour-mill into overdrive.

So what do we know about this mystery ghost estate? It sits, as it has done for at least five years, almost on the water’s edge, commanding spectacular views across the head of Bantry Bay. Great care has been taken with the architectural design of the development, which is in keeping with the quaint charm of the village, in turn influenced by the large period properties in the area. The most attractive feature of each neatly-proportioned house is the high, arched window that leads out onto an upstairs balcony perched above a ground-floor bay window, promising stunning bay vistas throughout the house.

Attractive as the estate may be, the telltale signs of abandonment are in evidence. Fences have been broken down. Pipes and rotting cable reels lie strewn about. Gorse and wild grasses are steadily taking over. At first glance the properties themselves appear to have escaped vandalism, but a neighbour says that windows at the back of the houses have been broken.

And there, in the middle of all this neglect, adding to the air of mystery, stand the ruins of Reendesert Court. In 2000, a company called Greenville Properties applied for outline planning permission to reconstruct the castle for residential use but this never came to pass.

Consecutive Tidy Towns reports document the development of the estate over the years, from its promising early days to its current “sad and unfortunate” state. In 2010 the judges noted that the local residents’ “causes of frustration are clearly etched onto the landscape”.

“It’s an eyesore,” one neighbour says of the development. “I wish it would be resolved one way or another. Move in or knock them down.”

A local businessman tells us that the site floods when spring tides coincide with strong winds. “It’s nice with the castle in the background,” he concedes, but it’s “too low down”. He wonders how the developers got planning permission to build houses there, and whether it’s even possible to insure the properties because of the flooding problem. A large derelict building next door to the estate, the Reendesert Hotel, is compounding the problem, and he says some of the locals want the hotel to be knocked.

So who is behind the Reendesert estate? A person with knowledge of the development told us that Skibbereen architect Liam Hazel worked on the project.

When contacted, Mr Hazel said that this was the case, but when asked who the developers were, he said he couldn’t discuss any of his clients. Fair enough, but it turns out Mr Hazel, together with auctioneer Margaret Ann Hazel, controls a company called Emerald Isle Properties, which in turn owns eight sites at Reendesert. Records filed by Emerald Isle Properties with the Companies Office give us an insight into what happened with the project.

It appears that the development was financed by AIB, because in late 2002 the lender was given security in the form of a charge over the eight sites at Reendesert.

Accounts for the year ending October 31st, 2009 show that €1.8 million was owed to creditors. Presumably, the lion’s share of this is due to AIB.

The debt is unlikely to have been transferred from AIB to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) as it is below the requisite €20 million threshold. The company’s stock (ie the houses) is valued at €1.19 million.

A note in the accounts states that the company built six houses which are not fully complete and that these houses have been on the market for some time. “Due to the downturn in the economic environment, the company is unable to realise a sale for these houses,” it says.

“After making enquiries and considering the uncertainties . . . the directors have a reasonable expectation that with the continued support of the company’s bankers, the company will be in a position to realise its assets once the economy recovers,” it adds.

If this really is just another humdrum case of being scuppered by the downturn, then the people behind the Reendesert estate would be well advised to be upfront with the local community, who have a right to know what’s happening with a development that now scars their landscape.