Tag Archives: Clare housing

SOME rental properties in Clare are not being advertised because local auctioneers don’t need to advertise them. The so-called market rate for some executive properties has increased dramatically in recent weeks due to the chronic shortage of houses and the departure of some small landlords that had one or two dwellings. A four-bedroom property in Fanore and a three-bedroom property in Tulla were advertised for a €2,200 rental cost a month, while a four-bedroom detached house in Lahinch was on the rental market for €2,250 a month. Douglas Hurley of DNG O’Sullivan Ennis said in a lot of cases they don’t need to advertise rental properties because they have clients with references who can be contacted from their enquiry waiting list. Mr Hurley acknowledged some of the rental prices being quoted at the moment are “crazy”. He said they primarily deal with letting rental properties in Ennis and the surrounding areas where a four-bedroom house can attract monthly rental of …

CLARE County Council doesn’t intend to pursue an enforcement notice issued about the alleged unauthorised development of a mobile home near Tuamgraney following legal advice, according to a complainant. Duncan Young, who lived in Ballymalone, Tuamgraney, for a few years before moving to Shinrone in County Offaly has expressed his frustration spending almost five and a half years making complaints and representations to the council about the provision of appropriate accommodation for two elderly sisters. Mr Young recalled he first alerted Clare County Council in June 2017 about the siting of a mobile home, which was approved and paid by the council’s housing section to accommodate the Moloney sisters, Breda and Margaret after their farmhouse was deemed uninhabitable. Following countless phone calls and emails to the council over the last five years Mr Young was told: “I wish to advise you that the planning authority has conducted a review of file UD17-055 and sought legal advice on same. “Please be …

IDA client companies recently received a briefing on the state of the housing market in County Clare. Members at a meeting of Shannon Municipal District were informed of the briefing by Director of Services with Clare County Council Liam Conneally. He said that the IDA’s regional manager had asked him to prepare a presentation for the IDA client companies in the Mid-West, in relation to the amount of residential land and the availability of housing in the county. Mr Conneally said that they had wanted to hear about the future pipeline of housing, the number of planning applications received and granted, and short, medium and long term projections. He said that in Clare planning permission has been granted for over 1,000 units this year, and that there is “a considerable pipleine in the system yet to be acted on”. There was also a Q & A session with the company representatives and he said it was “a useful exercise”. Mr …

WITH a major shortage of housing in the town, Councillor Gerry Flynn queried what is holding up the delivery of an affordable housing scheme for the town, at Tuesday’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District meeting. It has recently emerged that Ennis and Shannon are not ineligible for affordable housing schemes, although rural parts of the county are. At this week’s meeting Councillor Flynn put forward a motion asking that the Council “urgently submit an application for funding to the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien for the development of a scheme of affordable housing in Shannon to support the lower to middle income earners that want to purchase their own homes locally”. A written response to the motion was put before the meeting, for the Council’s Director of Service Anne Haugh, which said that the local authority needs advice from the Department on what to do. “Clare County Council initiated engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in …

WHILE Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien came to Clare on Monday for the launch of four new social schemes, there are still plenty of  housing challenges in the county. The new developments were launched in Ennis, Miltown Malbay and Tulla with a total of 153 homes being delivered from a total budget of over €40 million. The Cluain Gréine development in Lifford, Ennis, is the largest of the four new developments, with an approved budget of €18,923,877. This development provides 61 social housing units through the turnkey delivery stream. It was constructed by Manozo Ltd for Focus Capital. Also in Ennis, the Cnoc na Scoile development at Ashline on the Kilrush Road, provides 40 social housing units through a direct build scheme by Clare County Council. This development had an approved budget of €10,534,481. The project was completed in June and the appointed contractor on the project was M. Fitzgibbon Contractors Ltd. The Baile na mBan …

NEW homes officially launched in Ennis this week are a “significant contribution” to meeting the county capital’s social housing need. That’s according to Ennis Mayor Clare Colleran Molloy who was speaking at the launch by Co-operative Housing Ireland of 69 new homes in Moínear, a development in Ros Leamhain, Ennis. Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, Councillor Tony O’Brien officially opened the estate on Wednesday saying, “The direct delivery of homes by local authorities, and Approved Housing Bodies such as Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI), is pivotal in addressing housing need across Ireland. “The homes in Moínear are truly affordable, with rents linked to household income, and will provide security for CHI members. In addition to the 69 homes in Moínear, CHI has helped to deliver 78 much-needed homes in Clare since 2020.” He pointed out the new houses are in a residential area within easy reach of Ennis town centre and near local amenities including a shopping centre which is served …

SOME 40% of houses sold in County Clare in 2019 went to single purchasers, rather than joint purchasers, according to research published this week by the Central Statistics Office. The median price paid for a property in the Kilrush electoral area was €138,800, in the Killaloe area it was €175,000, in the Ennistymon area it was €180,000.  The highest prices were in the most urban parts of the county, with a median of €188,000 in the Shannon electoral area and €193,000 in the Ennis area. In the Ennistymon and Kilrush areas the median age of purchasers was 48 and 45 respectively. It was below 40 in the other three areas, at 39 in Killaloe and 38 in both the Shannon and Ennis electoral areas. For sole purchasers in the Ennistymon area the median income was €31,600, while in the Killaloe area it was €41,900. The equivalent figures for the Shannon, Ennis and Kilrush areas were €39,200, €36,600 and €30,900 respectively. …

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 …