Failed Washing Bay Road ‘ghost estate’ stumbles back onto the market
2nd April 2012 | By: Coalisland Post | 1 Comment »
A luxury housing development that became trashed by vandals and thieves when it was abandoned after the property crash has been put up for sale.
The ill-fated Millbrook by the Canal development on Washing Bay Road was supposed to contain 70 properties – selling for around £175,000 – but was abandoned halfway through when the housing boom collapsed and the houses failed to sell.
Windows were smashed, fireplaces were ripped from the walls and skirting boards were taken up as thieves looted the empty properties. Some of the people who moved into the isolated estate also complained of being infested with rats.
(Scroll down for a Homes from Hell episode on the Millbrook ghost estate, and a Google street view of the development)
But several years on from the housing crash, the disastrous development site has been put back on the market.
Creepy photos in the estate agents’ brochure show the rows of empty properties boarded up following years of vandalism and looting, describing the houses as “dilapidated and unoccupiable in their current state”.
Joint developers Donnelly Bros and Carsden Developments managed to build 30 of the 70 planned houses on the 8.9-acre site, but only nine were sold, with 21 units remaining unoccupied.
The O’Connor Kennedy & Turtle estate agents brochure says the 21 unsold dwellings “are now no longer in a habitable state of repair and will require major refurbishment to bring the dwellings back to a habitable condition”.
“A number of constructed houses have been vandalised internally, with damage to walls and fixtures and fittings,” it says.
The site for sale has been zoned for housing and includes planning permission for three phases of construction. The estate agent has not revealed details of how much the site is likely to sell for.
Diagram showing the sold and unsold properties at the Millbrook development
Couple Seadna and Mairead Billings, who both work as teachers, took out a 100% mortgage of £175,000 to buy their dream three-bedroom home in Millbrook.
They moved into their new home in 2008 – but soon discovered the surrounding houses were all empty.
Living alone in their street, the couple said the derelict houses around them were soon under siege from vandals, thieves and rodents.
Seadna told TV programme Homes from Hell: “You can just see the vandalism and theft that’s gone on around the place – it just gradually got worse and worked it’s way down closer and closer to us.
“We were worried, if we were going to be sitting in the living room, if there was going to be a brick come through the window.”
The couple left the property after six months and, after being left paying rent and a mortgage, decided to declare themselves bankrupt and have the house repossessed.
Homes from Hell episode on one couple affected by the Washing Bay Road ghost estate:
>View the estate agent advertisement
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Comments:
One Comment on “Failed Washing Bay Road ‘ghost estate’ stumbles back onto the market”
Such a shame, it would be such a nice place to live in had it not been for all the vandalism.