ghost home

plural ghost homes

1. idiomaticbusinessA residence intentionally kept vacant by an absentee owner, especially a foreign investor, as a financially safe asset to be liquidated at a convenient time.

   So then we get to the deliberate ghost home investors. How do we tell that the empty flat has been purposely left unoccupied?

   2017 May 13, Jimmy Thomson, "Ghost investment properties could be harder to exorcise than it seems," domain.com (Australia) (retrieved 27 April 2018)

   2 more examples

   The house is an example of what is popularly referred to as a "ghost home," a property owned by a nonresident (sometimes noncitizen) who has no plans on ever moving in.

   2015 April 24, Joshua Alvarez, “Real Estate: Are ‘ghost homes’ becoming a problem?”, in Palo Alto Online, US, retrieved 27 Apr 2018

   The outcome of the new tax is being watched closely as cities around the world struggle with the rise of so-called ghost homes: scarcely used residences in prime urban locations seen by investors as a safe way to park their cash.

   2018 April 26, Natalie Obiko Pearson, “Ghost-home tax fills Vancouver coffers but rentals remain scarce”, in Financial Post, Canada, retrieved 27 Apr 2018