Building a house in County Offaly: the 5-year local test, the open countryside presumption and the €3,500 charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Offaly County Council decides applications for the county. The plan in force is the Offaly County Development Plan 2021-2027, as amended by Variation No. 1. Rural housing policy is in chapter 2 under Open Countryside, and the site standards are in chapter 13.

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

Three kinds of open countryside

The plan’s Open Countryside Housing Policy Map (Figure 2.6) sorts the county into:

• Rural Areas under Strong Urban Influence and Stronger Rural Areas. These are electoral divisions where at least 15% of the workforce commute to a town of over 10,000 people or with more than 2,500 jobs. You must show a functional need to live there (SSP-27).
• Areas of Special Control. Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation, Natural Heritage Areas, Areas of High Amenity, Source Protection Zones and land along Restricted Regional Roads. The same test applies, with stricter numbers.
• The rest of the open countryside. There is a presumption in favour of a single house for anyone, from the area or not, who will live in it permanently (SSP-28).

The local need test

Under SSP-27 you must show all four of these:

1. A functional economic or social requirement to live in that rural area. Economic means your work needs you nearby, such as full-time farming, horticulture or forestry, or a rural part-time occupation that is your main one, within about 8 km of your work. Social means you were born in the local rural area, or live or have lived there for at least 5 years at any stage. That includes returning emigrants. The local rural area is generally within 8 km of where you were born or lived, and counts the villages but not Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry, Portarlington, Banagher, Clara, Daingean, Ferbane or Kilcormac.
2. You do not own, and have not owned, a house in the open countryside.
3. If the site is in an Area of Special Control, there is no alternative site outside it.
4. The siting and design are of high quality.

In Areas of Special Control the residence requirement is 15 years and the local rural area is 5 km. The council gives special consideration to exceptional health circumstances, supported by a registered medical practitioner and a disability organisation. See rural housing and local need for the evidence councils look for.

Where anyone can build

In the rest of the open countryside SSP-28 presumes in favour of a permanent home for people from inside or outside the area, subject to high quality siting and design. The plan prohibits speculative building: the application must be in the name of the person the house is for, and a condition will require them to occupy it first.

Restoring an old house is treated separately. Refurbishing a derelict dwelling (SSP-29), reusing an older building that still has its walls and roof (SSP-30), or replacing a derelict (SSP-31) or habitable house within its own curtilage (SSP-32) does not need the local need test.

Site rules

A house in the open countryside needs a site of at least 0.2 hectares, or half an acre (DMS-45), and at least 30 metres of road frontage unless keeping existing boundaries or a backland site justifies less (DMS-46). It should not sit in front of the established building line (DMS-47). Ribbon development is judged against Appendix 4 of the 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines (SSP-33). A single infill house can be allowed in a small gap within an existing line of houses, but not at the end of one (DMS-54).

The development charge

Offaly adopted a new Development Contribution Scheme on 23 March 2026, running to 2032. It charges €3,500 per house outside Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry, Portarlington, Clara, Banagher, Daingean, Kilcormac and Ferbane, and €4,500 inside them. It applies to every permission granted after the adoption date. Refurbishing a property on the Derelict Sites Register earns a 50% reduction. 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 Offaly’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 on-site systems to follow the EPA code of practice (DMS-44). 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.