Rural planning overhaul: finally addressing the obvious

Property Insights by Johnny Gannon, Fair Deal Property

The solution was always obvious. Available land surrounds our towns and villages. Rural sites exist in abundance. But in many cases unless you had attended the local school or were farming the nearby land you had little or no chance of securing planning permission.

How such rules could have persisted for so long during a national housing emergency is difficult to reconcile. Countless opportunities for increases in local housing supply have been lost. Not to mention many dreams along the way. Mercifully, all that is about to change.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has announced what he describes as the biggest overhaul of rural housing rules in two decades. A new National Planning Statement on rural housing goes to Cabinet in early June and the changes it contains are substantial.

Restrictions on ribbon development along rural roadsides are to be eased. The cap on homes built on farm holdings will be scrapped. And critically, the definition of who qualifies to build in a rural area is being significantly broadened. Anyone who has lived in a rural area for a defined period, at any point in their life, will have a reasonable expectation of securing planning permission, subject to normal planning conditions. You will no longer need to be a farmer or demonstrate an ongoing local connection.

The overhaul also aims to end the county-by-county inconsistency that has long frustrated applicants. The same house on the same type of site could be refused in one county and passed in a neighbouring one. Demonstrating both the rigidity and arbitrary nature of the system whilst highlighting the need to bring national clarity and uniformity to rural planning.

For families who have spent years waiting, watching the market, holding on to the hope of building on land they own or can access, this is meaningful and positive news. Approximately 5,000 one-off rural homes are built annually across Ireland. That number is expected to rise considerably once these reforms take effect.

Its over 20 years since the local housing need restrictions were implemented. In many areas, the rules essentially halved the value of rural sites and they have never recovered their former value. This too maybe about to change.

The time to act is now before Cabinet Approval in June as competition for relevant sites looks certain to increase.

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