The failed developments are a blow to Dover District Council (DDC), which has been tasked by the government with hitting a target of 789 new homes every year.
The Mongeham Road estate, which the authority approved in 2019, should have helped provide some of the much-needed housing.
DDC even sent out a press release at the time, hailing the redevelopment of former Stalco Engineering Works – a brownfield site.
But when KentOnline visited last week, the picture was bleak.
One of the houses with boarded-up doors and builders’ material at Great Mongeham near DealAn unfinished flank wall on one of the properties
One house had an unfinished upper flank wall, with a wooden framework exposed to the weather and no bricks over it.
Other properties had piles of rubble and stacks of builders’ piping nearby. Some doors and windows were boarded up.
Alan King, who lives just a few hundred yards from the site, told KentOnline: “It’s a tragedy that the development still isn’t complete.
“A friend of mine lives opposite the entrance. Her life has been constantly in upheaval since.
“The road has been closed, it’s been opened again, and closed again.
Alan King, one of the neighbours of the abandoned building site at Great Mongeham, near Deal
“In fact, we went through a month, probably three or four months ago, when the road was closed at one time or another throughout the month.”
The development is on a stretch of land behind the main road’s South Court Garage. Separate plans were submitted last year to demolish it and build five homes.
Another resident, who did not want to be named, fears the abandoned properties could collapse.
They told KentOnline: “This shows a scandalous waste of resources and precious land, especially when Deal is so expensive to live in.
“Young people have no hope of ever buying a house in the UK due to the high prices.
“These houses urgently need to be finished, as water will get into them this winter and they will start to fall down.
“It’s soul-destroying to see this go on, when truly affordable homes of three to four times income, that you could buy at around £120,000, do not exist.”
The firm behind the plans, Kent Housing Developments Ltd (KHD), has gone into administration, according to the government’s Companies House website.
The latest published accounts show the company owed £8,135,928 to creditors by November 30, 2023.
The housebuilding company, from Hainault, east London, had administrators appointed by the High Court of Justice on August 1 this year.
CGI of the planned new houses at Great Mongeham, from August 2018, during the application process. Picture: Designs Architecture
KentOnline has contacted the administrators, PKF Littlejohn Advisory, for further comment and in the hope of reaching KHD through them.
The other abandoned housing estate in the district is the half-built 29-home White Cliffs Court scheme off Folkestone Road, Dover. Developer Enzo Homes went into liquidation in February.
Drone pictures show how construction has carved a blot of chalk into the hillside.
The unfinished Enzo Homes development in Folkestone Road, Dover, has left a “chalk scar” on the hillside. Picture: Barry Goodwin
Council bosses served an enforcement notice for work to stop last year, which the developers appealed – but a date for that hearing has still not been set.
Neighbours left in limbo previously told KentOnline: “The whole thing has been a disgrace.”
A DDC spokesperson said: “The council understands the frustration of local residents when developments are halted in the build process, especially when there are people looking for new homes.
“It is, however, the developer’s responsibility and decision as to how and when they build out their site and the council doesn’t have any control over that, provided the planning permission is complied with.”
They added: “There are a number of different ways in which homelessness can be measured. We currently have 254 cases where we have accepted a duty to house people as they are homeless.”