Building a house in County Clare: Areas of Special Control, the 12.5 hectare farm test and the €5,549 charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Clare County Council decides applications for the county. Its planning application pages explain how to apply and let you search applications already made, which is a quick way to see how the council has treated sites near yours. The rural housing rules are in section 4.2.6 of the Clare County Development Plan 2023-2029, now published with Variation No. 1. Councils can vary a plan, so check the current text before you buy a site.

Read how a one-off house application works first. The plan says the council will prepare a new Clare Rural House Design Guide during the plan period (objective CDP 4.20), and applications are assessed with regard to the existing Clare Rural House Design Guide, so check the council’s page for the current one.

Areas of Special Control

Clare’s policy turns on one map. The plan calls three types of countryside “Areas of Special Control” and shows them in Volume 2:

• Rural areas under strong urban influence, the countryside around Ennis, Shannon and the larger towns.
• Heritage Landscapes, the sensitive scenic and coastal areas with little capacity for individual houses: the Burren, Loop Head, the Atlantic coastline, Slieve Aughty, Lough Derg and the Shannon Estuary.
• Sites accessed from or abutting a scenic route.

Inside these areas, objective CDP 4.14 permits a house only for someone who meets the economic or social need criteria below. Outside them, objective CDP 4.15 permits a single house for someone who wants it as their principal private residence, subject to high quality siting and design and compliance with environmental law. The application must be in the name of the person who will occupy the house.

Economic need

Category A covers people whose work means they need to live permanently in the rural area close to it. The plan names full-time farming, horticulture, forestry, bloodstock and marine work, and others who can show a genuine need because of their occupation or business. Bed and breakfasts do not count. Similar part-time work can be considered where it is your predominant occupation and the other work is within reasonable commuting distance or can be done remotely. You must not already own, or have owned, a house in the surrounding rural area, and you need the house for your own permanent occupation.

For farming or bloodstock, the plan sets a minimum farm size of 12.5 hectares within the local rural area. With less land, you can be considered where a business plan shows that farming or bloodstock on the landholding is your predominant occupation and that it is viable.

A second economic route covers someone who is not eligible under the first and commits to run a full-time business, again not a bed and breakfast, from the proposed home. You must give evidence that the business serves a predominantly local rural need and will help the rural community. Expect to be asked for the extent of the landholding, the nature of the operations, the planning history, the number of people employed, livestock numbers and any scheme participation such as Bord Bia quality assurance.

Social need

Category B covers an intrinsic member of a local rural community. That means someone born in the local rural area or who has lived there permanently for at least 10 years, continuously or over several periods, before applying. Returning emigrants who meet this qualify, as do people who lived in a rural area for a substantial part of their lives where it is now within a town boundary or on zoned land. The same rule applies about never having owned a rural house, with one exception below.

Two other routes exist. Someone who needs a rural home for exceptional health reasons can qualify with a report from a registered medical practitioner. If the house is for a carer of someone already living in the area, such as an older person who has lived there more than 10 years, it must be sited adjacent to the cared-for person’s house. The exception to the rule about owning a house applies to someone who qualifies by residence and lost a previous home through legal separation, divorce or repossession.

The “rural area” here includes the countryside and the designated clusters and small villages, but not Ennis, Shannon, the service towns, small towns and large villages. In the Areas of Special Control, it is the area within 10 kilometres of the site. A case beyond that distance is judged on its merits. For general advice on evidence, see rural housing and local need.

Heritage Landscapes and scenic routes

If your site is in a Heritage Landscape or is accessed from or abuts a scenic route, you must also show that no alternative site is available in the Settled Landscapes, the Shannon Estuary Working Landscape or the Western Corridor Working Landscape. Plan this before you buy: a site in the Burren or on the Loop Head road faces two tests, need and landscape.

Sites accessed from a national road or certain regional roads must also meet objectives CDP 11.13 and 11.14, which restrict new accesses to protect carrying capacity.

Occupancy, infill sites and replacements

Table 4.1 sets the conditions. A new house in the Areas of Special Control must be your permanent and principal residence for 7 years. Outside them, a permanent principal residence condition applies with no restriction on resale after first occupation. The plan does not permit new holiday homes in the countryside (objective CDP 4.19).

Under CDP 4.16, a single gap site within a substantial and continuously built-up frontage in a group of rural houses can be permitted, for the applicant’s own permanent occupation. In the Areas of Special Control, the economic or social need test does not apply to an infill site, but you must still never have owned a rural house. A gap deliberately created will not be permitted.

Under CDP 4.17, a habitable but substandard house can be demolished and replaced, as can one damaged by fire, flood or another disaster, with no need test even in the Areas of Special Control. The plan asks you to follow the NPWS bat mitigation guidelines and protects vernacular buildings where restoration and extension is an option. Refurbishing a derelict house under CDP 4.18 also needs no need test, unless you plan to substantially demolish it, and its external walls must be substantially intact.

The development charge

Clare County Council’s Development Contribution Scheme 2025-2029 was adopted on 14 July 2025 and runs to the end of 2029. A residential unit outside the rural villages is charged €5,549 up to 200 square metres, and €20 per square metre above 200. A 200 square metre house is therefore charged €5,549. Inside a rural village’s settlement boundary, the rate is €3,500 per unit. The council also updates every rate each 1 January using the CSO’s building and construction price index, so the amount you are charged can be higher than the figure in the scheme.

Serviced sites pay 75% of the unit rate. Domestic garages and garden sheds are exempt. If the house you replace was serviced and last used as a dwelling, its floor area is exempt and the rest is charged. A grant under the Housing Adaptation Grant scheme exempts the development, and retention applications pay 1.5 times the normal rate with no exemptions.

The national waiver covered only homes started on site between 25 April 2023 and 31 December 2024. A house starting now cannot qualify. See the waiver guide.

To see how Clare’s charge compares, the development contributions table compares the charge for a 200 square metre house across all 31 councils.

Wastewater and site suitability

Almost every rural house treats its own wastewater, and every objective in the plan is subject to site suitability. A site that fails the assessment cannot be built on whatever your local connection. Read site suitability assessments and wastewater treatment systems before you pay for the test.