In this article we cover:
- What the proposed rural housing rules would change
- Whether the shake-up could bring more sites to market
- Why experts are cautious about a quick uplift in rural sites
- How local need, social need and economic need may be assessed
- Why planning permission will still depend on site, design and landscape impact
- The role of ribbon development and why it may not be the biggest barrier
- Why building costs remain a major challenge for self-builders
- The case for serviced sites and bringing life back into rural towns
- Why the SCSI is calling for more clustered rural housing
The Government’s proposed overhaul of one-off rural housing rules has raised hopes among self-builders that more rural sites could come onto the market.
The Draft National Planning Statement, announced recently, is intended to replace the 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines and introduce a clearer, more consistent national approach to rural and Gaeltacht housing. Ministers said the aim is to end the so-called “Eircode lottery”, where an applicant may be treated differently depending on which local authority area they fall within.
Under the draft rules, local need, social need, economic need and housing need tests would be simplified in many cases, while fixed frontage and ribbon development caps would be replaced by a case-by-case assessment. However, applicants would still have to satisfy normal planning criteria, including site suitability, design, access, wastewater treatment and environmental impact.
The question now is whether the changes will simply make planning applications clearer – or whether they will actually lead to more rural sites being advertised for sale.
Estimates of a possible 20–25 per cent uplift in rural sites have been suggested in commentary around the proposed changes, but sources contacted by SelfBuild were cautious about whether such an increase is likely, particularly before the final rules are adopted and tested through local planning decisions.
Planning consultant, Andrew Hersey, who is based in Co. Clare, says he hadn’t yet seen evidence of a rush of new sites coming to market.
Having read the draft guidelines several times, Hersey says the real impact would depend on how the rules are applied in practice and how local development plans respond. But he wasn’t optimistic. “I’ve been working in planning for 20 odd years. To my mind not a lot has changed at all. In fact, I think it’s getting harder.
“Potentially, there may initially be more sites coming on to the market because the government has spun a positive development, but when you look into the nitty gritty, nothing’s changed really.
“The positive side is that, if every local authority adopts these guidelines and updates its development plan to match them, we could finally have one clear approach for the whole country.
“At the moment, the rules can vary from place to place, which makes the process very frustrating for people. A single national strategy would at least give applicants and planners more certainty.
“But we won’t really know how well it works until it is put into practice.”
He also says he hadn’t yet received enquiries suggesting landowners were preparing to bring more sites to market.
“I’ve had no phone calls,” he says. “For Clare, things won’t change as far as I can see.”
Hersey says some of the routes for rural applicants, including farmers, rural contactors and people with local connections, already existed in development plans. “If you were born in the area, you already have the right to build a house.”
While he acknowledges that the list of occupations had extended to include teachers and garda for example, in his view, the announcement does not mean a “free-for-all” for rural housing.
Asked whether the changes would allow people to build anywhere in the countryside, he says: “That’s not the case at all.”
He also warns that in his experience, rural applications are mainly refused not because of local need rules, but because of visual impact and landscape considerations, suggesting that applicants may still meet local housing policy but fail on siting, design or landscape sensitivity.
“If you are applying for planning permission in a highly sensitive area, you basically still haven’t a hope in gaining permission.
On ribbon development, Hersey says the draft may make the approach somewhat easier, but he questions whether that alone would unlock large numbers of homes.
“It’s very unusual that an application would be refused purely on ribbon development grounds,” he says.
He also points to cost as a major barrier for self-builders, saying the price of building a one-off home is now a significant constraint regardless of planning policy. “Building costs these days are typically 600k+, there are not a lot of people who can afford to do that. It would be beyond the reach of people such as rural contractors or those on a teacher’s salary.”
Asked what single measure would make the biggest difference to housing, he says the focus should not only be on one-off rural homes, but on making rural towns more attractive and affordable places to live. “There’s a romantic idea about living in the countryside, and I understand that. But as you get older, rural living can become much harder.
“I drive through towns across Limerick and Clare and you can see the life going out of some of them. We need more people living in our towns, keeping them active and supporting local shops, schools and services.
“The Government has talked about serviced sites in towns, but it hasn’t really happened in any meaningful way. That idea needs to be pushed much harder. If people were offered serviced sites at a fair and attractive price, I have no doubt many would buy them and build their homes there.
“It would give people a chance to stay local, while also bringing badly needed life back into our towns.”
The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland also stopped short of predicting an immediate surge in rural sites for sale.
SCSI President Tomás Kelly told Selfbuild that the Society had called for a greater emphasis on clustered rural housing in its pre-budget submission
“The SCSI believes that greater consistency and transparency in planning rules should provide applicants with increased certainty and may encourage more planning applications over time,” he says.
However, Kelly says rural housing policy should move away from ribbon development and towards more clustered rural housing.
“Rural housing planning guidelines in the new National Housing Plan should transition away from ribbon development towards a more ‘clustered’ rural housing delivery in the interest of proper planning and sustainability,” he says.
“One-off development should be evidenced with a strong housing need, such as strong ties with agriculture, if seeking to build a new single home outside of ‘clusters’.”
Kelly also says planning authorities should collect better data on the types of single rural houses being approved, including whether permissions are being granted for ribbon or cluster development.
“Government should consider implementing a maximum threshold of ribbon development permissions for each county to manage the levels of one-off houses being built in this manner.”
The draft National Planning Statement is not yet in force. It must undergo environmental screening and public consultation before final approval, and until then the 2005 rural housing guidelines remain in effect.
