ENGLISH
REFERENCE

ghost home

idiom
Meaning

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


Examples
SIMPLE

That empty house is just a ghost home for an investor.

CONTEXTUAL

The neighborhood has many ghost homes that sit empty while local families struggle to find affordable places to live.

COMPLEX

Urban planners worry that the proliferation of ghost homes, held primarily as speculative assets by overseas entities, artificially inflates property values and hollows out the community.

Anchors to
Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    bring home

    To earn (money).

  2. 02

    bring home the bacon

    To have employment which provides remuneration to satisfy the basic needs of oneself and one's family.

  3. 03

    broken home

    A home in which the parents have separated or divorced.

  4. 04

    charity begins at home

    One should help the people closest to oneself before thinking of helping others.

  5. 05

    close to home

    Affecting people close to, or within, one's family circle.

  6. 06

    come home by weeping cross

    To return in disappointment, or in a spirit of contrition.

  7. 07

    come home to roost

    To have negative consequences (of an action in the past).

  8. 08

    eat someone out of house and home

    To consume so much of someone's store of food that little or none is left for the owner.

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