Tag Archives: housing

The price of the average three-bed semi in Clare has risen 3% to €170,000 in the last three months, a national survey carried out by Real Estate Alliance has found. The REA Average House Price Survey concentrates on the actual sale price of Ireland’s typical stock home, the three-bed semi, giving an up-to-date picture of the property market in towns and cities countrywide. “The market is strong with a high number of potential purchasers but a limited supply, which is helping values. We are seeing a mix of purchasers, between investors and owner-occupiers,” said Liam Browne from REA Paddy Browne in Ennis. The average semi-detached house nationally now costs €215,269, the Q2 REA Average House Price Survey has found – a rise of 2.5% on the Q1 figure of €209,944. Overall, the average house price across the country has risen by 11.2% over the past 12 months – in contrast to the 4.5% increase registered to the full year to …

PLANS for a new €10 million 50-unit housing development at Tullyvarraga, Shannon, have effectively been put on hold, following concerns about a number of planning and design issues. Clare County Council has requested John Walsh, c/o Roy O’Shea, 20 Lower Hartstonge Street, Limerick, to submit revised plans for the development, which comprises of 10 detached, 24 semi-detached and 16 apartment units and ancillary works for a site at Tullyvarraga. The planning authority expressed concerns that the house type mix has not sufficiently been informed by the 2017-2023 Clare County Development Plan. The authority believes there is an over-provision of three-bed semi-detached dwellings and that greater consideration should be given to incorporating some single-storey dwellings. It proposed that the siting of unit number one, relative to the existing property, should be revised by relocating same closer to the second unit and by relocating the turning area closer to the eastern boundary. The authority expressed concerns about the siting of units number …

A provisional budget allocation of almost €2.5 million has been approved for the construction of ten local authority houses in Feakle. News of the funding has been confirmed to Deputy Joe Carey who said that €2,452,805 would be made available to Clare County Council under the local authority housing construction programme and he expected that construction would be well under way early in the new year. “There is an established need for local authority housing in Feakle and I am confident that the ten houses will help keep local families in the heart of their community. This is in line with the Government’s ‘Rebuilding Ireland’ housing strategy to reverse the years of reduced investment following the economic crash,” he said. “It is important that the benefits are felt across the country and not just in the bigger population centres. For that reason, I am delighted that Feakle is among the first to benefit from the new strategy. “Keeping people in …

JUST a few years ago, ghost estates were one of the oft discussed items in current affairs but the tide has turned, with high rents and lack of houses now a more prominent feature. With this changed environment, a planning application has been lodged for a 42-unit housing development in Roslevan, Ennis. If it is to go ahead, it would be one of the only such developments be built in the area for some years. Michael and JJ Fahy have made the application for the development. It consists of eight three-bedroom ground floor apartments, eight four-bedroom duplex apartments, and 26 three-bedroom houses. The site in question is 1.78 hectares in size and the gross floor space of the works will be 4981.64m². Some 107 car parking spaces will also be provided. Planning permission was previously granted for a development at the site but that was a number of years ago and this is a new application. Diarmuid McMahon of auctioneering …

PLANS for a housing development on Catholic Church lands on the outskirts of Ennis may be thwarted by a protected bat species. Killaloe Diocesan Trust has been successful in getting land rezoned for low-density housing at Cahercalla More, Beechpark, despite opposition from the council executive, but the presence of Lesser Horseshoe bats could change matters. Councillors voted to change the recreation zoning to low-density residential in the interest of pedestrian access, movement and safety and also passed a resolution that was incorporated into the Draft Clare County Development Plan 2017 – 2023. This stated that any development has to provide a high-quality design, which sensitively incorporates mature trees on site and provides a buffer to the N85 to protect residential amenities. It was also decided to change the zoning on part of this site from low-density residential to recreation. It has emerged that the Diocesan Trust has been approached by housing developers to acquire some of the proposed residentially-zoned lands …

AN Ennis father has told of how his family spent Tuesday night sleeping in their car, after being made homeless. John Sweeney and his family have refused an offer by Clare County Council of a house in Kilrush, resulting in a refusal of welfare assistance for emergency accommodation. However, Mr Sweeney claims that the accommodation offer was refused out of fear, alleging he was threatened in Kilrush. He said the family, including seven children ranging in age from 12 years to five weeks, would “be walking into danger” if they moved back to Kilrush and he is appealing for the council to house them in Ennis. When contacted by The Clare Champion with Mr Sweeney’s claims, a spokesperson for Clare County Council stated the local authority does not comment on individual cases. The Department of Social Protection also responded that they do not comment on individual cases. “We didn’t take the house on the grounds of protecting me and my …

Nearly €5m is to be spent on developing 25 new social housing units in Clare, as part of a new nationwide investment programme. Ten homes are being built in Quilty, along with 15 more at Tullyglass in Shannon at a combined cost of €4.75 million. The money forms part of a newly-announced investment programme worth €312 million that seeks to build 1700 new homes throughout Ireland. Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government, Alan Kelly said the first major direct build social housing programme is part of the first phase of  the Government’s social housing strategy. €312 million has been approved which will see an additional 1,700 social housing units come on stream by 2017 with an estimated 3,000 additional jobs in construction created. The projects, which cut across each local authority area, range in size from small numbers of units to projects of over 50 units for some of the Dublin local authorities. Minister Kelly said local authorities …

A homeless family, living in emergency accommodation for the past three and a half months, is begging Clare County Council to house them, as they cannot find suitable private, rental accommodation locally. Martin Mongan, his 21-year-old partner, Kathleen Delaney, and their two young children are currently living in one bedroom in a bed and breakfast in Lahinch. “It has been very, very hard. There is a lot of moving. Where we are now, we leave at about 12 noon or 1pm and we have to be gone until about 8pm or 9pm. My parents and brothers would collect us if the weather is bad but we have a double buggie and, in the fine weather, we walk down to Lahinch and wait there until we get collected,” Martin explained. “Then we wait with my parents in their house in Miltown Malbay and then, at night, we come back again. We have breakfast here and that is good and then, within …