Half-built homes as firm closes

Work on the Tranquility development at Pembrey has stopped.

New home owners have been left living next to half-completed houses after a builder developing two estates in south Wales called in administrators.

Ballantyne Homes has 15 of 40 homes to complete at Vivian Park Mews in Port Talbot and has left 20 plots in varying stages of construction in Pembrey.

Administrator Deloitte said it would take advice on how to dispose of them.

Earlier this month, a different building firm stopped work on a half built block of flats in Cardiff Bay.

A spokeswoman for Ballantyne Homes, which called in administrator Deloitte at the start of the month, said its team was reviewing the situation the house builder found itself in.

"The company currently has residential development sites in Port Talbot with 15 houses left to complete and in Pembrey with 20 plots in varying stages of construction," she added.

Brick shells

"Offers made by individuals for properties will be considered by the administrator's agents, DTZ, and they will be contacted by them in due course.

"DTZ will also review the development sites and advise the administrators on the best method of disposal."

At Pembrey, near Llanelli, Ballantyne has left an array of new houses at its scheme called Tranquility.

Some are occupied, others appear to be near completion while there are also just shells where workmen had only just started laying bricks.

Earlier this month Bellway Homes, one of the UK's biggest housing developers, said it had temporarily stopped building a 17-storey building at Prospect Place in Cardiff at the sixth floor because of a lack of demand among buyers.