Tag Archives: housing

NO properties in Shannon were available to rent on daft.ie or myhome.ie last Thursday or Friday, reflecting an extraordinarily tight market, in which supply is almost non-existent and prices are high. Councillor Gerry Flynn said that the local housing situation is really poor. “It’s abysmal, there’s no doubt about it. Since the Council took over Shannon (it assumed responsibility for the town from Shannon Development in 2004) it has received total saturation of social housing. That’s all Shannon has got, social housing from Clare County Council.” “Shannon Development used always make areas available for private housing. That in turn helped a lot of people who wanted to buy their own house. This policy is in place since September 2004 and this policy is coming home to roost. “They (the Council) saw Shannon as a luxury of sorts, to get over 100 acres of residential land, already zoned, and they were focusing on Shannon as being the solution to social housing …

FOLLOWING Eddie Lenihan sharing the story of his rental nightmare in Kilkee, local councillor Cillian Murphy says it illustrates a wider problem in the seaside town. “There’s no getting away from the fact that people who want to live permanently in the town can’t get long term rentals. “Eddie isn’t the only one that we know of, I think it really crystallises what we’re losing. Here’s a guy with a job who can work remotely, can elect to live in Kilkee, they have a family and it’s a loss to the community, the kids are a loss to our schools and sporting organisations. “Eddie would have been very involved with Foróige, with the football clubs and sporting organizations, as would his wife. The social capital that that family unit brought to the town is gone. “It just shows in one family the loss to our community of not having long term rentals available and affordable housing.” Councillor Murphy said that …

SHORT term rentals has been a major factor in making housing unaffordable, not just in cities, but in places like Kilkee as well. Eddie Lenihan now lives in Adare, having had to leave Kilkee due to the near impossibility of finding a place to rent there year-round. Although a native of Limerick, he was spending much of his time in Kilkee from his earliest days. “My parents had a house down there from when I was born and I’m 42 now. I used go every Easter, Christmas, all summer. I played football there from under 14, we won a few underage titles, Kilkee is my community, it’s where I grew up, where my best friends are from. I’ve a deep connection with it.” A civil engineer, he left Ireland during the recession, but just after Eddie and his wife became parents, they moved back to West Clare, with plans to settle there that ultimately did not work out. “We were …

PLANS for a significant housing development in the village of Tuamgraney are being considered by the local authority. Developer Michael Pearl is proposing to demolish an existing pumping station and build 52 houses in a mix of bungalows and two-storey units, on a 3.96 hectare site on the Dock Road. A detailed planning report has been submitted by Hassett Leyden and Associates outlining plans for six four-bedroom detached houses; 22 three-bedroom, semi-detached houses; 14 two-bedroom semi-detached houses; and ten two-bedroom semi-detached bungalows. The average housing density will be 13.13 units per hectare. The application outlines that Tuamgraney is designated a ‘service town’ under the Mid-West Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-2022. Under the current County Development Plan, the site has three zoning types – residential, low-density residential and open space. In terms of the design concept, a mix of house types is proposed “to achieve a good mix and varied appearance of buildings”. A “large quiet open space at the back of …

AN application for planning permission for 28 houses at Station Road, Lahinch has been refused by Clare County Council. Victoria Cross Retail Limited had made the application for the development, which was met by a number of objections. Refusing the application, the Chief Executive’s Order made reference to the inadequate sewerage facilities in Lahinch and stated the development would be premature. This constraint is unlikely to be overcome in the immediate future. The order stated, “It is further considered that the proposed development of 28 houses to be serves by means of an on site wastewater treatment would set an undesirable precedent for development of further housing estates served by such ad hoc treatment systems. “Taken in conjunction with the level of existing and approved development in the vicinity (it) would result in a risk of pollution and would be prejudicial to public health.” The report also said the Council was not satisfied that the proposed use of an on-site …

THE Banner county’s property market is scorching hot according to a number of recent indicators. Research from Daft.ie this week shows that rents in the county are now more than twice what they were at the low point of the crash. The latest Daft.ie rental price report states that rents here were 15.7% higher in the final quarter of 2021 compared to the final quarter of 2020. The average asking price to rent a property in Clare is now 102% above its lowest point. Daft.ie is an extremely popular portal for people looking to rent a home, and on Tuesday it showed just 18 properties available to rent in the whole county, illustrating how tight the market is. One crumb of comfort for renters is that the rate of increase in price does seem to be slowing. The increase in the last quarter of the year was 1.6%, whereas year on year it was 15.7%. According to Daft.ie it is …

IN the second half of last year the prices of three-bedroom semi-detached houses rocketed in Clare, increasing by a greater percentage than any other part of the country. That’s according to the latest residential property price research from the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers. In a report issued this week they stated, “In the three-bedroom semi segments of the market, Clare scored the strongest growth rising 13.53% to an average of €206,250.” According to its findings the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Clare is €120,750, while for a three-bedroom semi-detached house it is €206,250 and for a four-bedroom semi it is €260,000. Writing in the report, Pat Davitt IPAV Chief Executive, stated that house prices are close to where they were at the end of the Celtic Tiger years. “Our barometer tracks house prices achieved by auctioneers, as opposed to asking prices. During 2021 in particular that differential was crucial given the intense demand against a scarcity …

THE housing crisis in West Clare, and elsewhere, is being worsened by short-term letting, a meeting of the Council has heard. A motion was tabled, at the December meeting, by Councillors Cillian Murphy, Tony O’Brien, Alan O’Callaghan and Pat Hayes calling on the Minister for Finance to look at a tax policy solution to encourage a switch from short-term to long-term rental. Outlining the situation, Councillor Cillian Murphy said that a search of Daft.ie had shown a total of 1,830 properties to rent nationwide. Of these, four were in Ennis and its environs; one in Lahinch; none in Ennistymon or Lisdoonvarna; two in Kilrush and its surrounds; none in Kilkee and six in the Shannon area. The Fianna Fáil member contrasted that situation with short-term letting, as revealed by the ‘Inside Airbnb’ research. “Across the whole country, there are 15,851 entire homes or apartments available for short term let on Airbnb,” he explained. “6,420 of those are operated by hosts …