# ghost home

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/ghost-home
Updated: 2026-08-10

## 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

- That empty house is just a ghost home for an investor.
- The neighborhood has many ghost homes that sit empty while local families struggle to find affordable places to live.
- 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.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.