Building a house in County Leitrim: Low Capacity Areas, the 18-month rule and the €2,000 rural charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Leitrim County Council decides applications for the county. The plan in force is the Leitrim County Development Plan 2023-2029. Rural housing is in section 2.8 and chapter 3 of Volume I, with the siting standards in chapter 13 and the council’s design guide for single houses in the Leitrim countryside.

Read how a one-off house application works first. The council’s planning pages explain how to apply and let you look up applications already made near your site.

Low Capacity Areas and Other Rural Areas

Almost all of Leitrim is rural: only Carrick-on-Shannon, with Cortober, has more than 1,500 people. The plan splits the county into two for rural housing. Low Capacity Areas are under strong urban pressure and are defined as the electoral divisions where more than 15% of residents commuted to Carrick-on-Shannon or Sligo in the 2016 Census, mainly around Carrick-on-Shannon and west of Dromahair towards Sligo. Manorhamilton and Ballinamore are not treated as towns of scale for this purpose. In the Other Rural Areas, rural housing is supported in principle subject to proper planning considerations (RUR SET POL 2).

The local need test in a Low Capacity Area

Under RUR SET POL 3 you must be an existing member of the rural community with a strong economic or social need to live there, and meet one of two categories:

1. Social need. You have lived a substantial period of your life, at least 18 months, in the local rural area where the house is proposed.
2. Economic need. You are employed full-time in rural-based activity such as farming, horticulture, forestry or bloodstock, or your work is intrinsically linked to the area, such as a teacher in a rural school, and you have never owned a house in a rural area.

The local area is within about 4 km of the site, excluding the defined urban areas. If the site is further away, the council considers the application on its merits where you have significant ties, such as immediate family or well-established landownership. That includes a son or daughter of a landowner where the landholding has been owned or in the family name for at least 10 years. If you rely on part-time farming or natural-resource work, you must show evidence such as a herd number or hours of activity, and it must be your predominant income. See rural housing and local need for the evidence councils look for.

Conditions that follow the permission

In Low Capacity Areas, every permission carries a Section 47 occupancy condition of 7 years from first occupation, restricting the house to you or members of your immediate family as permanent residence (RUR SET POL 4). Where an area has become over-developed at the edge of towns, the council can also seek an agreement restricting further development from the landholding (RUR SET POL 5).

Siting rules

Rural housing is assessed on environmental and visual impact, heritage, traffic safety, whether the demand is rural or urban generated, and a minimum site size of 3,000 square metres. Houses must follow the council’s design guide (RUR SET POL 6), with extra care in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Areas of High Visual Amenity. The plan aims to limit ribbon development on the approaches to towns and villages. A replacement house is considered only if it sits generally within the curtilage of the one it replaces, and there is a presumption against demolishing vernacular dwellings where restoration is feasible.

The development charge

Leitrim’s Development Contribution Scheme 2023 charges €2,000 for a rural house of up to 200 square metres. Above that it is €15 per square metre for 201 to 250 square metres and €17.50 beyond. The scheme exempts the inheritor of the family farm from the charge for a house on that farm, on its conditions, so read it before assuming either way. 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 Leitrim’s charge compares, the development contributions table compares the charge for a 200 square metre house across all 31 councils.

Wastewater and site suitability

The plan acknowledges that most Leitrim sub-soils struggle to meet the EPA percolation requirements, and that this is part of why serviced sites in villages are promoted. 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.