Building a house in County Laois: three rural area types, the local rural person test and the €2,000 base charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Laois County Council decides applications for the county. Its planning pages explain how to apply and offer pre-planning consultation. The plan in force is the Laois County Development Plan 2021-2027, adopted on 25 January 2022 and in effect from 8 March 2022. The rural housing rules are in section 4.6 of chapter 4, with the development management criteria in the plan’s DM RH 1 and the rural design guidance in Appendix 7.

Read how a one-off house application works first. The council will expect your application to show how it has taken the rural design guidelines into account.

Three rural area types

The plan divides the countryside into types, shown on its Rural Settlement Strategy Map.

• Rural areas under strong urban influence are within easy commuting distance of the main towns and adjacent counties including the Greater Dublin Area: the north and east of the county, 5 km buffer zones around the Principal Town, Key Service Town and the service towns of Graiguecullen and Mountmellick, and the land along national, strategic regional and regional routes. The council permits single houses only for those with a local rural housing need.
• Strong rural areas have a strong agricultural base and a network of smaller towns and villages. The council permits single houses to facilitate those with a rural housing need.
• Structurally weak rural areas show persistent population decline and a weaker economy. The plan says that, in general, demand for permanent residential development should be accommodated, subject to normal planning and environmental criteria.

The housing need test

In areas under strong urban influence you meet the test by showing any one of these:

1. You are a long-term landowner, or the son or daughter of one, building a first home on the family lands.
2. You are working the family farm and the house is for your own use.
3. You work in rural activities and for that reason need to live near your place of work. This normally means full-time farming, forestry or inland waterways work, part-time work where the main occupation is farming or natural resources, or work intrinsically linked to rural areas, such as teaching in a rural school.
4. You are a local rural person who has spent a substantial period of life in the local rural area and, for family or work reasons, need to live there.

In strong rural areas the three routes are a long-term landowner or child building a first home on family land, someone working in rural activities, or a local rural person building a first home in the local rural area. Across the county, a local rural housing need means you do not own and have never owned a house in the local rural area, and need a permanent home for your own use. See rural housing and local need for the evidence councils look for.

Exceptional health circumstances, supported by documents from a registered medical practitioner, can justify living in a particular place, and any such permission carries a seven-year occupancy condition (RH 14).

Siting and design

DM RH 1 sets the basic site tests for a new rural house: 30 metres of road frontage unless there is a considerable set-back, at least 0.202 hectares (half an acre), sightlines achieved within the site boundary without stripping long stretches of hedgerow, and a design that fits its surroundings with native planting. The council also looks at the capacity of the area to absorb more houses, including ribbon development, defined as five or more houses along 250 metres of road frontage (RH 18), and development of a single landholding. Where a landholding has a history of speculative sales of sites, the council can restrict further houses even if you meet the need criteria (RH 12). The council resists new direct access onto national roads where the speed limit is above 60 km/h.

The development charge

Laois’s Development Contribution Scheme 2023-2029 charges a house outside the local area plan and settlement boundaries a €2,000 base charge for dwellings up to 200 square metres, made up of €1,200 for roads and €800 for amenities. Above 200 square metres, a band rate applies: €12 per square metre over 200 for 201 to 249 square metres, €16 for 250 to 299 and €20 for 300 and over. A 200 square metre house therefore pays €2,000. Houses inside the urban boundaries pay a flat €4,000.

An extension is charged €10 per square metre beyond an exempt 40 square metres, and a shed or garage €10 per square metre beyond 25 square metres. Retention permissions get no exemptions or waivers. The national waiver covered only homes started on site between 25 April 2023 and 31 December 2024, so a house starting now cannot qualify. See the waiver guide.

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

Wastewater and site suitability

Most rural sites treat their own wastewater, and the plan requires a site to take an on-site system in line with the EPA code of practice and the county groundwater protection scheme. A site that fails the test will fail the application whatever your local need. Read site suitability assessments and wastewater treatment systems before you pay for the test.