Building a house in County Mayo: rural housing policy, scenic routes and the €20 per square metre charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Mayo County Council decides applications for the county, and its planning applications page is where you search for and track them. The rural housing rules are in section 3.4.8 of the Mayo County Development Plan 2022-2028, which took effect on 10 August 2022. Variation No. 1, made on 8 December 2025, changed the core strategy and zoning maps but did not change the rural housing objectives. Councils can vary a plan, so check the current text before you buy a site.

Read how a one-off house application works first. Mayo also publishes Rural Housing Design Guidelines, and objective RHO 5 advises every rural housing applicant to follow them. Read them before your designer starts, because siting and design are what decide most applications here.

Two kinds of countryside

Mayo’s plan follows the national approach of treating areas near towns differently from the rest of the county. It marks out the “Rural Areas under Strong Urban Influence” on Map 3.1, around the Tier I towns (the key towns and the strategic growth town) and the Tier II self-sustaining growth towns. The council used a density of more than 30 inhabited units per square kilometre as its test. Rural villages inside those areas are excluded from the restrictions for 200 metres from the village centre.

• Under strong urban influence. Objective RHO 1 facilitates single houses, but you must show a social or economic link to the area in which you want to build. The plan says the local rural area includes, but is not limited to, a parish, a district electoral division and a townland.
• Remaining rural areas. Objective RHO 2 sets out a presumption in favour of a single house, decided on the siting and design criteria in the national guidelines and the plan. You do not have to prove a local connection.

Who counts as having a genuine housing need

In the areas under strong urban influence, the plan’s examples of a genuine housing need are:

1. Farmers, their sons and daughters, close relations or anyone taking over the running of a farm in the area where they propose to live.
2. Sons, daughters or other relations of non-farming people who have spent a period of their lives in the general rural area where they propose to build.
3. Returning emigrants who spent part of their lives in the area and want to live close to family to care for or be supported by them, to work locally or to retire.
4. People in farming, including equine enterprise, and people employed or about to take up employment in a local service, enterprise or profession.
5. People whose health requires them to live in a particular environment or near family support. They must give medical evidence of why this is preferable.

The list is not closed, so a case that fits none of the five exactly can still be put forward. For general advice on evidence, see rural housing and local need.

Scenic routes, the coast and lakeshores

Mayo applies stricter tests in the places it considers most open to view. These areas are on Map 10.2 of the plan, so check the map for your site before you commit.

• Scenic routes. Under RHO 3, applications will be considered where you can show a clear need to locate in the area, and the house does not harm the character of the area, meets high standards of siting and design, satisfies servicing, safety and environmental requirements, and improves local landscape character and ecological connectivity.
• Scenic routes with designated scenic views, coastal areas and lakeshores. Under RHO 4, you must show a long-standing social link to the area, and that the house could not be considered at another location, as well as meeting the same siting, design and servicing tests.

An occupancy condition is attached to every grant in both of these areas.

Occupancy conditions

An occupancy condition under section 47 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 ties the use of the house to people who meet the local need. In Mayo it may be imposed in areas under urban pressure, and it is attached to every permission on scenic routes, coastal areas and lakeshores. The plan says no occupancy clause is applied outside the areas under urban pressure. It also says the condition does not affect a sale by a mortgagee in possession, or by anyone who gets title from such a sale where force majeure applies, such as death, illness, relationship breakdown, emigration, unemployment or relocation for work.

Ribbon development, replacement houses and granny flats

Objective RHO 7 presumes against ribbon development, defined as more than five houses in a row over 250 metres of road frontage, outside the boundaries of every settlement in the hierarchy. Count the houses along the road either side of your site before you buy.

Objective RHO 8 means no housing need test applies if you replace or reuse a house or another substantial building. The plan wants to keep vernacular houses, though. Under RHO 9 a traditional house will be demolished and replaced only where a structural engineer’s report shows it cannot reasonably be made sound. If you plan to extend or refurbish instead, RHO 10 asks that the design, scale and materials fit the existing building.

Under RHO 11, a granny flat, self-contained independent living unit or remote working office is judged on its merits against the criteria in section 2.9 of Volume 2 of the plan. RHO 12 supports multi-generational housing.

The development charge

The Mayo County Council Development Contribution Scheme 2023-2029 charges a residential unit €3,000 or €20 per square metre of floor area, whichever is greater. A 200 square metre house is therefore charged €4,000, and a house under 150 square metres pays the €3,000 minimum. Floor area is the gross internal area of every floor, including internal walls.

The scheme charges residential extensions €15 per square metre above 40 square metres, and a new domestic garage or shed €15 per square metre above 25 square metres. Retention permissions pay double and get no reductions or exemptions.

For a redevelopment, the scheme charges only the additional floor area. A 200 square metre house replacing 150 square metres of existing building is charged on 50 square metres, provided the demolition is necessary for the new building. Development that receives a housing adaptation grant for a person with a disability is exempt, but only for the part that serves that person’s needs.

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

Wastewater and site suitability

Outside the sewered towns and villages, a new house treats its own wastewater. Objective INO 8 requires systems with a percolation area to be rigorously assessed under the EPA code of practice for single houses, taking account of the combined effect of existing and proposed development nearby. 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.