Dr. Ronan Lyons:

There are about 180,000 units in ghost estates. Approximately 100,000 of those are not even built but have planning permission. Of the 80,000 remaining, about 45,000 were occupied in 2011. I think the figure is 50,000 now. One is now down to something of the order of 25,000 to 30,000 units, which are half built, largely built or built and empty. That is not a lot of demand in terms of months of transactions, in particular when one starts to look at the areas. There is basically next to nothing in Dublin. It looks like it is two weeks worth of rental supply in Dublin. It is not that it will make no dent. In certain areas, it could make a big dent if one bring 100 houses on stream near a village but for the country as a whole, it might be a few months worth of transactions.